Wonder how long and where she'll do her time... American Justice System - I've got the popcorn!!

If you read the book Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou you see just how much of a fraud this was. I read it on holiday a few years ago and was gripped, it’s a great book. My co vacationer read it after me and was to quote her “absolutely f*cking gobsmacked”.

Really hope they throw the book (pun not intended) at her.

One to add to my reading list. I seem to always give the benefit of the doubt - business started off honestly, things got big, stuff went wrong, then the deception started. Look forward to finding out if I'm right.

You won’t be disappointed - I wasn’t.

we could put politicians on trial when they lie!

We simply don't have the capacity to do that - not enough judges by a couple of orders of magnitude!

I have no doubt the only reason why she got pregnant and had a baby and claimed her ex has been abusive was to try and evoke sympathy from the jury during the trial.

She is clearly manipulative and only thinks about herself, As what sort of person would think about having a child when you are facing the possibility of 20 years in jail.

Fraudster or not, claiming without any sort of evidence that someone chose to become a parent simply to deceive a jury is shameful.

Perhaps someone who wants to have children and is worried that their fertility may not last until they get out (especially as I've seen reports elsewhere that she may face 20 years consecutive for each charge)?

True, but what happens to the children during her jail sentences? At best it's yet another instance of thinking only of herself and not, in this case, the child.

The same kind of person that tries to commit a massive fraud - one that is not very good at thinking things through to their conclusion.

Manipulative, self-centered and a crook, yes, but I'm not sure your first conclusion is more than your opinion.

The BBC was reporting earlier she could get 80 years, so was surprised to see 20 here?

I thought it was up to 20 years per count of Wire Fraud which would be 60 as there were three of those. Then the rest of the charges might give another 20 years.

She may face up to 65 years (3x fraud @ 20, 1x conspiracy @ 5) if the sentences are set at their maximum and applied consecutively rather than the more usual concurrence.

Because this is not a particularly egregious example of fraud (i.e. she deceived sophisticated investors, not your dear old gran/did it on a relatively modest scale), because most of the more serious charges didn't stick and because she has an otherwise clean record the likely number is reckoned by most observers to be in the 4-6 range.

However this is federal sentencing so there's a level of witchcraft involved beyond the ken of mere mortals.

@AC:

As far as I know, she has a squeaky clean criminal record (or lack thereof, more precisely), so the guidelines won't be so draconian for her. The federal "point system" is pure madness!

"this is not a particularly egregious example of fraud (i.e. she deceived sophisticated investors"

But these are Rich Important People. Doesn't US sentencing come down heavily on that?

Looking at it another way, she defrauded rich people and they are the sort that contribute significant sums to US judges' election campaigns...

Federal judges are not elected.

She ripped 140 million out of Murdoch.

Which says more about Murdoch than Holmes

TBF, when you read Carreyrou's book, Murdoch declined to kill the story even though it was clear he would lose a substantial amount of money as a result of its publication.

She got some out of Larry Ellison too.

The board of directors had some star names on it which might have gone some way to making it all seem legitimate. These included:

Henry Kissinger (former United States Secretary of State);

Jim Mattis (retired Marine Corps four-star general);

George Shultz (former United States Secretary of State);

Richard Kovacevich (former CEO of Wells Fargo);

William Perry (former United States Secretary of Defense); and

William Foege (former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

[1]https://news.crunchbase.com/news/theranos-elizabeth-holmes-trial-investors-board/

As far as I know they were all taken in by Holmes’s and her boyfriend and there’s no suggestion that they did anything wrong.

[1] https://news.crunchbase.com/news/theranos-elizabeth-holmes-trial-investors-board

"there’s no suggestion that they did anything wrong"

Or enough due diligence.

Or any due diligence.

I think the wool was being pulled firmly over everybody’s eyes . Theranos were faking results, using other peoples established tech or just lying to convince investors etc. Walgreens signed a deal with Theranos despite their own hired in expert saying he had serious concerns. The executives just ignored him I suspect because the potential was too good and they were worried about rivals getting in there first.

Seriously recommend reading the book on this if you want to get the full story.

There but for the grace of god goes every silicon valley startup founder. They all lie. They all deceive their investors. Their investors are all stupid enough to be deceived. Theranos were just stupid enough to do it in a highly regulated industry.