Elizabeth Holmes may be getting out of prison around two years earlier than expected. According to her profile on the Federal Bureau of Prisons website, Holmes' release date is now scheduled for December 29th, 2032. That means the time she'll serve is almost two years shorter than her original sentence, which was supposed to last for 11 years and three months. The agency has confirmed her shortened (nine years and seven months) sentence to The Guardian but didn't comment further, citing the privacy and safety of inmates.
Holmes was indicted on charges of fraud back in 2018, a few years after a series of reports from the Wall Street Journal exposed that Theranos' proprietary "fingerprick" blood-testing technology was faulty. The publication had also reported that the company was aware of its issues but sent inaccurate test results to patients anyway. In 2022, Holmes was found guilty of defrauding investors and was sentenced to 135 months in prison, as well as three years of supervised release.
The former Theranos chief, who had been out on bail from the time she was indicted, tried to convince the court to allow her to stay out of prison while she was appealing her case. She failed in her bid to stay out of prison, though, and reported to a minimum-security, all-female facility in Texas on May 30th. It's unclear why her sentence was quietly reduced, but factors like good conduct, the completion of assignments and rehabilitation programs, as well as the credits inmates receive for various activities could result in a shorter sentence. Based on the prison bureau's website, Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, who was Theranos' former president, will also be released two years earlier than expected in April 2034.
As for Holmes, she was ordered to pay $452 million in restitution to the fraud victims in addition to serving time in prison and going through supervised release. As Gizmodo notes, Holmes had an estimated net worth of $4.5 billion before Theranos' downfall. Forbes had lowered her estimated net worth to nothing a year later, and her lawyers argued that she could not afford to add $250 per month to her restitution schedule after she gets out.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/elizabeth-holmes-has-her-11-year-prison-sentence-cut-by-two-years-101541361.html?src=rss
