Court rejects Elizabeth Holmes’ motion to stay out of prison while on appeal

Disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has once again lost her bid to stay out of prison while she appeals her fraud conviction tied to a blood-testing hoax that bilked investors.

In a one-page ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday that Holmes’ appeal did not show that she would have received a shorter sentence or have her conviction reversed due to errors made during her trial.

Holmes’ 11-year prison sentence is scheduled to start roughly 20 years after she dropped out of Stanford University when she was 19 years old to start Theranos in Palo Alto, California — the same city where William Hewlett and David Packard founded a company bearing their surnames in a small garage and planted the seeds of what grew into Silicon Valley.

Holmes has been free on bail since a jury convicted her on four counts of fraud and conspiracy in January 2022. The verdict followed a four-month trial revolving around her downfall from a rising Silicon Valley star to an alleged scam artist chasing fame and fortune while fleecing investors and endangering the health of patients relying on Theranos’ flawed blood tests.