https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/elizabeth-holmes-sentencing-theranos-trial?mod=hp_lead_pos1
SAN JOSE, Calif.—Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos Inc. convicted of fraud, was sentenced to 135 months, or 11.25 years, in prison, capping the extraordinary downfall of a one-time Silicon Valley wunderkind.
U.S. District Judge Edward Davila, who oversaw the monthslong trial in which Ms. Holmes was convicted of running a yearslong fraud scheme at her blood-testing company, delivered the sentence Friday in federal court.
A jury convicted Ms. Holmes in January on four charges that she misrepresented the startup’s technology, finances and business prospects to investors.
Ms. Holmes had sought home confinement and community service, and no more than 18 months in prison. Her lawyers, in their request for leniency, positioned the 38-year-old as a caring friend and loving mother with a toddler at home and a second child on the way, whose incarceration would only prove detrimental to her family and community.
The defense submitted more than 140 letters from Ms. Holmes’s family and supporters that aimed to portray her as a caring friend, selfless servant, devoted mother and brilliant mind.
Jeffrey Pfeffer, a Stanford University professor friend of Ms. Holmes’s father, cautioned the judge that a jail term wouldn’t serve “any useful social purpose. On the contrary, it will put a talented person behind bars, separating her from her child and her family.”
Ms. Holmes founded and ran Theranos as chief executive for close to 15 years, touting a technology solution to revolutionize the blood-testing industry. The case was one of the most high-profile criminal fraud trials in years amid a decadeslong decline in white-collar prosecutions.