Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes reports to US prison

HOUSTON, United States

Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of blood-testing company, Theranos, reported to prison Tuesday in the US state of Texas to begin serving a more than 11-year sentence for defrauding investors.

HOUSTON, United States (AA) - Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of blood-testing company, Theranos, reported to prison Tuesday in the US state of Texas to begin serving a more than 11-year sentence for defrauding investors.

Holmes, 39, arrived at Federal Prison Camp (FPC) in Bryan at about 12:30 p.m. local time to start her 135 months (11 1/4 years) behind bars, according to multiple news outlets. FPC is a minimum security facility for white collar criminals.

Holmes was sentenced last November but remained free pending an appeal which was ultimately denied by a judge.

She was convicted in January 2022 by a jury in the state of California for fraud and conspiracy for false claims she made to investors about her blood-testing technology. She said the company's device could detect hundreds of diseases with just a few drops of blood even though she knew that was not the case.

It was a startling fall from grace for the Silicon Valley tech darling whose net worth once stood at $4.5 billion and is now at zero.

Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, Holmes' right-hand-man at Theranos and a former romantic partner, was also convicted of fraud and conspiracy last December and has already begun serving his nearly 13-year sentence.

Holmes and Balwani were ordered to pay $452 million earlier this month in restitution to investors who suffered losses due to the company's fraud, including Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch, Walgreens, Safeway and the Walton family, founders of Walmart.

Holmes has not yet exhausted her appeals process, so there is a possibility she may still try to appeal her conviction from prison.