SAN JOSE, CA –
Elizabeth Holmes is a flight risk and should not be allowed to stay out of prison while she appeals her 11-year prison sentence for defrauding investors, federal prosecutors said in court documents.
Holmes had a one-way plane ticket to Mexico booked for Jan. 26, 2022, three weeks after he was convicted by a jury on four counts of wire fraud and conspiracy, federal prosecutors said in a motion filed Thursday in federal court in Northern California.
Holmes, who was Theranos’ CEO during the company’s tumultuous 15-year history, was convicted in a scheme that revolved around the company’s claims that it had developed a medical device that could detect multiple diseases and conditions from a few drops blood. But the technology never worked and the claims were false.
Holmes booked the 2022 flight with no return trip scheduled and canceled it only after prosecutors contacted Holmes’ lawyers about the “unauthorized flight,” prosecutors said.
Holmes’ attorneys did not immediately respond Friday to email and phone messages from The Associated Press. In a Jan. 23, 2022 email, responding to prosecutors’ concerns about the planned trip, they said Holmes had booked it before the jury verdict to attend a wedding in Mexico.
“Given the sentence, she did not plan to take the trip and therefore did not provide notice, seek permission, or request access to her passport (which the government has) for the trip,” wrote Lance Wade, one of Holmes’ attorneys .
On Nov. 17, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila sentenced Holmes to more than 11 years in prison. Davila ordered Holmes, who is pregnant, to report to jail on April 27, giving her enough time to give birth to her second child before being locked up. She gave birth to a son shortly before the case against her began last year.
Prosecutors did not protest Davila’s decision to give Holmes five months of freedom, nor did they mention the fact that they considered her a flight risk.
Holmes is due back in court on March 17 for a hearing on her request to stay out of jail while she appeals her sentence.
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