Elizabeth Holmes might not be in prison yet, but she doesn’t have much freedom to roam, either.
The disgraced Theranos founder, 38, may find herself behind bars soon, but not before she attempted to leave the country via a one-way flight to Mexico. And now prosecutors are pushing for her sentence to start right away.
No stranger to the high life, Holmes rubbed shoulders with some of the best-known names in politics and business during her ascent to fame and fortune. She recruited and convinced the likes of Rupert Murdoch, Gen. Jim Mattis, Henry Kissinger, Betsy DeVos, and the Walton family of Walmart (WMT) – Get Free Report to either invest in or promote the rapid blood testing company. At its height, Theranos was worth north of $9 billion.
But what goes up must come down, and Holmes was sentenced in November to over 11 years in prison for wire fraud and conspiracy for defrauding investors.
Holmes Is One of Many Millennial Scammers
If it seems like there are a lot of millennial whizkids-turned-scammers running amok recently, that’s probably because there are. Holmes, so-called Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli, Simon Leviev (aka the Tinder Swindler), Fyre Fest magnate Billy McFarland, and Anna Delvey, whom the hit Netflix (NFLX) – Get Free Report drama “Inventing Anna,” is loosely about, have had riches, high-profile series based around them, and fame, followed promptly by legal troubles to bring them back down to earth.
And, in what is largely cast as a millennial trait, Holmes is really, unapologetically entrepreneurial. So entrepreneurial, in fact, that she had allegedly been thinking of new ways to re-enter the pharma industry and jet off to Mexico to maybe just avoid going to prison in the first place.
Prosecutors claim, according to Bloomberg, that Holmes has “indicated a willingness to continue operating in similar fields in the future,” and enjoys a lifestyle of immodest comfortability, where she “has both the means and the motive to flee,” and “her incentive to flee has never been higher.”
Holmes Could Be a Flight Risk, Prosecutors Warn
As it stands now, Holmes has been more or less holed up in a California villa with her partner and young child. Though her partner’s salary is listed at $0, their monthly expenses indicate they’re getting money from somewhere.
The villa in which Holmes resides requires about $13,000 in upkeep expenses. It may be the home she lived in during her 2022 trial — a $135 million mansion — which sits on 74 acres of land in the middle of Silicon Valley.
Holmes apparently also has enough money to jet set, having recently appealed her travel restriction, which currently mandates she stay within the Northern District of California. She claims that, since her partner is unemployed, she needs more freedom to roam. But prosecutors claim she might be trying to dodge prison instead.
They allege that Holmes booked a one-way flight to Mexico in January.
“Prosecutors point out that ‘the government became aware on January 23, 2022’ that Holmes had booked a flight to Mexico to depart on January 26, 2022 without a scheduled return trip,” ABC News reports.
“It was only after the government notified the defense about the unauthorized flight that the trip was canceled.”
Holmes’ partner did take the flight, however, and did not return to the states for a month and a half.
Holmes is supposed to surrender to custody on April 27, 2023.
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