Elizabeth Holmes, Convicted Theranos Founder, Begins 11-Year Prison Sentence

Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes began her 11-year prison sentence on Tuesday. ET has confirmed that the 39-year-old who was convicted of defrauding investors has arrived at the all-female Federal Prison Camp (FPC) in Bryan, Texas, and is in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

According to the Associated Press, Holmes was taken into "custody at a Texas prison" around 12:30 p.m. CT, just shortly before her mandated surrender time of 2 p.m. ABC News correspondent and The Dropout podcast host Rebecca Jarvis also reported that Holmes was "dropped off by her partner, Billy Evans, and her mom and dad."

Holmes, who was still pregnant with her second child at the time, first received the lengthy prison sentence in November 2022, nearly eight months after she was found guilty on four counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the fallout of her failed blood-sampling company.

Holmes then gave birth to her second child with Evans in the spring and subsequently filed an appeal in her conviction. According to CBS News, she sought to remain free while attempting to overturn her case before that bid was rejected by U.S. District Judge Edward Davila, who previously presided over her trial.

Holmes' prison sentence also comes 20 years after the Stanford University dropout founded the blood-sampling company with the ambition of revolutionizing the healthcare industry. A little over a year later, she raised $6 million to fund her ambitions. And by 2010, Theranos had collected more than $92 million in venture capital, making Holmes a star of Silicon Valley and beyond.

In 2013, Theranos, which was valued at $10 billion, partnered with Walgreens to launch in-store blood collection centers and two years later, the company established partnerships with Cleveland Clinic, Capital BlueCross, and AmeriHealth Caritas despite not having produced a functioning device.

It was not long after that the truth about Theranos' technology was revealed in the press and Holmes, who modeled herself after Apple CEO Steve Jobs, found herself in trouble with the law. By 2018, she and former company president Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani were charged on several counts of fraud.

In the end, Holmes was found guilty on four counts of wire fraud while Balwani was guilty of all 12 criminal charges brought against him and was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

During that time, the rise and fall of Theranos was chronicled in several podcasts, documentaries as well as the true-crime scripted drama, The Dropout, which earned Amanda Seyfried an Emmy for her portrayal of Holmes. Despite the praise surrounding the actress' performance, Holmes told the New York Times that Seyfried and others "are not playing me… They're playing a character I created."

Seyfried, meanwhile, appeared on Good Morning America the day Holmes turned herself into prison. "I feel for those kids, those two kids. They're hanging in the balance here," she said, referring to Holmes' children. She then added, "Life's not fair but in a lot of ways … it's fair for her, in particular."

The facility where Holmes is serving out her sentence also happens to be the same one where Jen Shah is now incarcerated. The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star was sentenced to six years after pleading guilty to wire fraud.

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