Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes set to serve 11-year prison sentence after judge rejects latest appeal

Disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes appears set to go to prison after a court rejected her latest attempt to stay free.

The 39-year-old entrepreneur was also ordered to pay $452 million (nearly £363 million) to the victims of his crimes by a California court on Tuesday.

She is jointly responsible for the restitution penalty with her former lover and the second-in-command of Theranos, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwaniwho is already in prison after being convicted of more offenses in a separate trial.

Holmes tries to knock her down conviction for fraud and asked to stay out of jail while she did so.

But U.S. District Judge Edward Davila, who sentenced her to more than 11 years in prison in Novemberwill now set a new date for Holmes to report to prison.

Revolutionary technology

Holmes, a Stanford University dropout, launched Theranos with the promise of delivering revolutionary blood testing technology that could detect dozens of diseases at once.

She quickly became the talk of Silicon Valley and raised almost $1 billion (£840 million) from a host of high-profile investors, including media mogul and Sky founder Rupert Murdoch, and the company was once valued at $9bn (£7.3bn). .

Holmes became America's youngest self-made female billionaire in 2014, but the technology was exposed as fake and the company quickly collapsed.

Delay tactic

Holmes had already been informed she is due to begin her sentence on April 27but his lawyers attempted a last-minute delaying tactic.

During her trial, Holmes accused Balwani, 57, of emotionally and sexually abusing her.

Prosecutors called his crimes “among the most significant white-collar crimes that Silicon Valley or any other district has seen.”

Learn more:
The Rise and Fall of Elizabeth Holmes
Could the disgraced founder of Theranos make a comeback?

Claims for errors and professional misconduct

During her appeal, her lawyers cited alleged errors and misconduct during her trial and said the errors and abuses that biased the jury were so egregious that she should be allowed to stay out of prison while the call is taking place.

That request has now been rejected by Mr. Davila and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Holmes has two children – a one-year-old son, William, and a three-month-old daughter, Invicta – with her current partner, William “Billy” Evans.

Failure of her final appeal will see her separated from them and sent to prison.

His astonishing rise and fall, from historic billionaire to the brink of prison, has inspired documentaries, podcasts and an award-winning television series – The Dropout – starring Amanda Seyfried as Holmes.