The federal court judge set to sentence convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes in September ordered Tuesday that she put up property worth $500,000 to help ensure she will not flee to avoid an expected multi-year prison sentence.
The Theranos founder was convicted by a jury in January in U.S. District Court in San Jose of four felony counts, for defrauding investors in her Palo Alto blood-testing startup. Those investors lost $144 million, with legal experts saying Judge Edward Davila, during Holmes’ sentencing, may consider the entirety of funders’ losses, which the federal government has alleged topped $700 million. Holmes, the mother of a child born in July, has remained free during her legal proceedings and while awaiting her sentence.
After Holmes’ conviction, prosecutors told Davila they planned to ask him to convert her $500,000 bail — secured only by her signature, as is common in federal cases — to cash or property of equivalent value.
Davila’s order Tuesday noted that Holmes’ defense team had agreed with the change.
Former Santa Clara County prosecutor Steven Clark said Holmes’ notoriety means there was probably little need for tightened bail. “There’s really no place for her to go that she wouldn’t be found,” Clark said. Fleeing would significantly compromise Holmes’ expected appeal, he added. Still, with legal experts predicting that Davila will send Holmes to prison for several years, “there’s a theoretical increased motive to not show up to court,” Clark said.
Court filings including a deed that show what property Holmes will put up have been sealed by the court, likely for privacy reasons, Clark said. The collateral could belong to Holmes, her family, or her partner Billy Evans, a hotel heir and father of her son, Clark noted. Holmes’ personal holdings are unclear — while she was a multi-billionaire on paper when Theranos was valued at $9 billion and she owned half its stock, jurors heard at her trial that she never sold any of her shares.
