While attorneys for disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes looked to be buying some extra time Tuesday with a state court filing, the Ninth Circuit also handed down a decision yesterday denying Holmes's bid to remain free pending her appeal. And her legal team is now asking for a prison-reporting date of May 30.
It looked on Tuesday like Elizabeth Holmes might remain a free woman well into June, but that actually doesn't seem to be the case. After buying an extra month after her original prison-reporting date of April 27 via an appeal filed with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, her attorneys have now put in a request for May 30 to be her new arrival date. As Bay Area News Group reported late Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit issued a one-page ruling denying Holmes's request for a stay of her reporting date, though they are continuing to hear her appeal of her conviction and sentencing.
With no options left, it sounds like perhaps the day after Memorial Day was something her team had been discussing for a while, knowing the general timeline of these things.
Also on Tuesday, the judge who presided over her trial and ordered her to serve 11 years and four months, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila, ordered Holmes and co-conspirator Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani to pay $452 million in restitution to defrauded investors. Judge Davila said he was holding the two "jointly and severally liable," and he landed on a figure that is just over half the $878 million that prosecutors had been pushing for.
Restitution amounts vary by victim and by their own original investments — will Rupert Murdoch live to see the $125 million that Holmes and Balwani are now ordered to pay him? As Bay Area News Group reports, restitution is owed to 12 individuals and entities, including Murdoch.
Davila previously put in a recommendation that Holmes serve her time at the federal prison in Bryan, Texas, but the Federal Bureau of Prisons will have the final say on that. Will she befriend former Real Housewife Jen Shah? She might!
We have also just learned that federal law will require Holmes to serve at least 9.5 years of that sentence.
Holmes has previously said that she has no assets and no ability to pay restitution — let alone her no-doubt-considerable legal bills? She told a New York Times interviewer recently that the wealthy family of partner Billy Evans is not footing the bill for those, but who knows.
Holmes's attorneys, in a Wednesday court filing with Judge Davila, said, "Ms. Holmes is preparing to report to the Bureau of Prisons. These preparations include out-of-state travel to her Bureau of Prisons facility and medical and child-care arrangements." Judge Davila has yet to respond to the May 30 date request.
Previously: Elizabeth Holmes's New Daughter Is Named Invicta, and Other Revelations From a Strange New NYT Profile
Photo: FPC Bryan via the Federal Bureau of Prisons