Elizabeth Holmes, the 37-year-old founder and former CEO of Theranos, is set to be sentenced on Nov˳ 18 after being found guilty on four charges of fraud and deceiving investors in January, per CNN˳ Government prosecutors have requested a 15-year prison sentence, a three-year release under supervision, and over $800 million in restitution, according to The Wall Street Journal˳
As you may recall from the numerous books, podcasts, and TV shows (like Hulu’s The Dropout) on Theranos, the company promised a new, revolutionary way to draw and test blood with just a finger pinprick˳ Holmes claimed that her device had the ability to detect major medical conditions, like cancer and high cholesterol˳
The problem? The machines didn’t work as advertised˳
Holmes started the company in 2003 after raising $700 million, according to Forbes˳ And, her fall has been a hard one˳
According to a U˳S˳ Justice Department indictment, Holmes and “her business partner and onetime boyfriend, Ramesh Balwani,” knew the blood test device had major issues, like being unreliable and slow˳ Still, they told investors that the company would generate $1 billion in revenue in 2015, and at one point the company was estimated to be worth $9 billion˳
By 2018, her company was done˳ Per The New York Post, Theranos was officially defunct by 2018, and the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Holmes with “massive fraud” the same year˳ She was accused of taking more than $700 million from investors˳
Now, at the end of a long trial, Holmes has been found guilty on one count of conspiracy to defraud investors and three counts of wire fraud connected to specific Theranos investors˳ She was found not guilty on three other charges of defrauding patients and one charge of conspiracy to defraud patients, CNN reported˳
Wire fraud is a term that covers many different kinds of crimes, according to the BBC˳ But in Holmes’ case, it means using electronic communications (like email) to lie to someone in order to get something from them, usually money˳
So, how much money is she worth today? I did some digging to find out˳
At one point, she was worth $4˳5 billion˳
According to Forbes, in 2015 Holmes was worth $4˳5 billion, and topped the FORBES list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women˳ (That’s billion, with a ‘b’˳)
That number sharply decreased in 2016, when Forbes “spoke to a dozen venture capitalists, analysts and industry experts and concluded that a more realistic value for Theranos is $800 million˳” However, they noted that Holmes only owned half the company’s stock, and after other investors would be paid before her, they then valued her fortune at “nothing˳” She subsequently fell off the Forbes list˳
Forbes changed her net worth estimate to $0 in 2016˳
In 2016, after accusations of fraud came to light, Forbes revised its estimate of Holmes’s net worth to zero˳ Although experts thought her net worth at that time was more likely around $800 million, she only owned half of Theranos’ stock and had lots of investors to pay back, so it made sentence to diminish their estimate, per Entrepreneur˳
Now that she’s convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000˳ There’s also the chance that she owes additional restitution for each of the four counts of fraud˳
Her husband has family money˳
Holmes married 29-year-old hospitality heir William “Billy” Evans in 2019, according to Vanity Fair˳ Evans’ grandparents founded the Evans Hotel Group, a “premier provider of resort accommodations” in Southern California˳ And his parents now run the business, according to Business Insider˳
She lives in a $135 million estate˳
During her trial, CNBC reported that she and Evans have been living on a 74-acre, $135 million estate outside Palo Alto, California˳ The estate is called Green Gables, and you can check it out here˳
It has “four pools adorn the grounds, including a stadium-sized Roman pool, a tennis court, a flower and vegetable garden, and a reservoir exclusively for the property˳”
