Ex-Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes will face sentencing this week, and has asked the court to land on a sentence of maximum 18 months of home confinement, and to look past the “caricature” the media has created.
This, combined with community service, will “more than capture the retributive and deterrent goals of sentencing while ensuring that our society’s resources are not wasted incarcerating someone who poses no danger to it, who in the eyes of the public will never be truly free of even the counts on which she has been exonerated, and who will devote her life to meaningfully serving her fellow human beings,” said Holmes’ attorneys in a pre-sentencing brief filed Thursday.
In January, a federal jury convicted Holmes of four counts of fraud, including an investor wire fraud conspiracy count and three substantive wire fraud counts, with wire transfers totaling more than $140 million.
Holmes’ lawyers wrote that more than 130 individuals who “actually know” Holmes have written to the court to provide character testimony, including friends, family, Theranos investors, Theranos Board members, and former employees.
In one letter, Holmes’ partner Billy Evans wrote a plea “to help her help others” and said, “the fact that Liz still has the support she does, despite the risks of associating with her is a testament to her goodness.”
The government recommended a drastically more aggressive approach. In a pre-sentencing brief submitted Friday, U.S. Attorney Stephanie Hinds wrote that Holmes should be sentenced to 180 months in custody and ordered to pay more than $800 million in restitution to investors, including to Walgreens and Safeway.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
“Holmes’ crimes were extraordinarily serious, among the most substantial white collar offenses Silicon Valley or any other District has seen,” the government told the court.
The sentencing will take place Friday, November 18.
Attorneys for Holmes and government attorneys did not immediately reply to request for comment.
Photo: Kimberly White, Getty Images
