Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced former chief executive of the blood-testing company [Theranos](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/theranos), has had her federal prison sentence shortened again, new records show. The 40-year-old [Holmes](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/elizabeth-holmes) is now scheduled for release on 16 August 2032 from a federal women’s prison camp in Bryan, Texas, according to the US Bureau of Prisons website. Holmes’s sentence was reduced by more than four months, as her previous release date was set for 29 December 2032. A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons confirmed Holmes’s amended sentence to the Guardian but said he could not comment further due to “privacy, safety and security reasons” for inmates. This is the [second time](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/10/elizabeth-holmes-11-year-prison-sentence-shortened-by-two-years) that Holmes has had her sentence shortened. In July, was reduced by two years. People incarcerated in the US can have their sentences shortened for good conduct and for completing rehabilitation programs, such as a substance abuse program. The latest reduction of Holmes’s sentence still meets federal sentencing guidelines. Those guidelines mandate that people convicted of federal offenses must serve at least 85% of their sentence, regardless of reductions for good behavior. In 2022, Holmes was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison after being convicted on four counts of defrauding investors. She was also ordered to pay $452m in restitution to those she defrauded, but a judge delayed those payments due to Holmes’s “limited financial resources”. Holmes’s lawyers have already begun attempts to get her conviction overturned. Oral arguments for her appeal are set to begin on 11 June in a federal appeals court in San Francisco, California, [NBC News reported](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/elizabeth-holmes-prison-release-date-rcna149825). Holmes founded [Theranos](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/theranos), a multibillion-dollar biotech startup that claimed it could run blood tests with only a single drop of blood. [skip past newsletter promotion](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/07/elizabeth-holmes-prison-sentence#EmailSignup-skip-link-11) Sign up to First Thing Our US morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters **Privacy Notice:** Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our [Privacy Policy](https://www.theguardian.com/help/privacy-policy). We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) and [Terms of Service](https://policies.google.com/terms) apply. after newsletter promotion Once hailed as a biotech innovator, Holmes as well as Sunny Balwani, her co-executive and former romantic partner, faced legal consequences after reporting from the Wall Street Journal and others found that the technology used by Theranos was fraudulent. Balwani was convicted in a separate trial for his actions in the Theranos scheme, and he was sentenced to 13 years in prison. He also had two years reduced from his sentence in July and will be released from federal prison on 1 April 2034, according to the prisons bureau website.

 When Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the now-disgraced blood testing company Theranos, [received the sentence](https://qz.com/theranos-sunny-balwani-jail-time-elizabeth-holmes-1849868036) for her fraud conviction in 2022, she was originally expected to serve 11 years after she [reported to prison last May](https://qz.com/elizabeth-holmes-does-not-deserve-our-pity-1850496329). But it looks like she’ll be getting out by Labor Day 2032. [NBC News noticed](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/elizabeth-holmes-prison-release-date-rcna149825) that her release date on the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) website has been bumped up to August 16, 2032 from December 29th. That marked another reduction after [more than two years](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/disgraced-theranos-founder-elizabeth-holmes-prison-sentence-appears-sh-rcna93593) fell off her sentence last year. The outlet heard from the BOP that sometimes sentences are shortened for good behavior or the completion of certain programs designed to address mental health, financial literacy, and other factors that might reduce recidivism. Holmes’s lawyer did not respond to an NBC request for comment. Theranos, founded in 2003 when Holmes was 19, had once promised to revolutionize the world of blood testing by reducing sample sizes from a full draw to a single pinprick. But a 2015 Wall Street Journal exposé revealed that the tests didn’t do as much as they said — and also operated similarly to normal blood tests. Before Holmes was convicted and ordered to pay $452 million in restitution, she settled a civil suit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in which the agency said she and co-founder Sunny Balwani (himself sentenced to 13 years in prison) had perpetuated a “[massive fraud](https://qz.com/1229328/sec-accuses-theranos-and-ceo-holmes-of-massive-fraud-while-warning-silicon-valley-startups)” on their customers and investors. Theranos [shut down in 2018](https://qz.com/1379288/elizabeth-holmess-theranos-is-shutting-down). Holmes’s story, which became [a cautionary tale](https://qz.com/elizabeth-holmes-sentencing-theranos-founders-myth-1849795152) about blind trust in charismatic Silicon Valley founders, became [a pop culture sensation](https://qz.com/2109336/how-elizabeth-holmes-became-a-pop-culture-phenomenon), inspiring [a best-selling book](https://qz.com/quartzy/1510531/best-books-we-read-in-2018) by the journalist who broke the story of her deceptions, documentaries from [ABC and HBO documentary](https://qz.com/quartzy/1575581/hbos-theranos-documentary-explores-elizabeth-holmes-cult-of-personality) exploring her rise-and-fall, and a Hulu series that dramatized it. Our free, fast, and fun briefing on the global economy, delivered every weekday morning.

173807712 story [](//science.slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=biotech) Posted by [BeauHD](https://twitter.com/BeauHD) on Tuesday May 07, 2024 @06:40PM from the good-conduct dept. For the second time, the disgraced former CEO of Theranos has had her federal prison sentence shortened. In July, it was reduced by two years. Now, 40-year-old Holmes is [scheduled for release on August 16, 2032 instead of December 29, 2032](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/07/elizabeth-holmes-prison-sentence) -- a reduction of more than four months. The Guardian reports: _People incarcerated in the U.S. can have their sentences shortened for good conduct and for completing rehabilitation programs, such as a substance abuse program. The latest reduction of Holmes's sentence still meets federal sentencing guidelines. Those guidelines mandate that people convicted of federal offenses must serve at least 85% of their sentence, regardless of reductions for good behavior. In 2022, Holmes was [sentenced](https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/05/30/2056236/theranos-ceo-elizabeth-holmes-begins-11-year-prison-sentence) to 11 years and three months in prison after being convicted on four counts of defrauding investors. She was also ordered to pay $452m in restitution to those she defrauded, but a judge delayed those payments due to Holmes's "limited financial resources." Holmes's lawyers have already begun attempts to get her conviction overturned. Oral arguments for her appeal are set to begin on June 11 in a federal appeals court in San Francisco, California, [NBC News reported](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/elizabeth-holmes-prison-release-date-rcna149825). _

  When Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the now-disgraced blood testing company Theranos, [received the sentence](https://qz.com/theranos-sunny-balwani-jail-time-elizabeth-holmes-1849868036) for her fraud conviction in 2022, she was originally expected to serve 11 years after she [reported to prison last May](https://qz.com/elizabeth-holmes-does-not-deserve-our-pity-1850496329). But it looks like she’ll be getting out by Labor Day 2032. [Read More](https://qz.com/elizabeth-holmes-sentence-shortened-1851461362)  A tokamak in France set a new record in fusion plasma by encasing its reaction in tungsten, a heat-resistant metal that allows physicists to sustain hot plasmas for longer, and at higher energies and densities than carbon tokamaks. [Read More](https://qz.com/new-fusion-record-achieved-tungsten-encased-reactor-1851459488)  Nearly all of FTX’s former customers will get back almost 100% of the money they lost at the time of the cryptocurrency exchange’s collapse — if not more. [Read More](https://qz.com/ftx-money-back-sam-bankman-fried-collapse-bankruptcy-1851463007)   People tend to assume their state, and especially their city, has the worst drivers in the country. We tend to chalk that up to the fact that you’re going to notice a lot more bad behavior in the place you live compared to somewhere you’re visiting, but ultimately, _somewhere_ has to have the worst drivers, right? The question is, where is that place, exactly? [Read More](https://qz.com/most-aggressive-drivers-america-states-us-1851455207)  David Ulevitch, a general partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, is tired of the “BS jobs” at big companies. [Read More](https://qz.com/google-white-collar-staff-andreessen-horowitz-1851460910)  The inflation economy has come for Big Food. Earnings reports from some of the biggest food companies have highlighted struggles with higher prices, labor shortages, and more [Read More](https://qz.com/mcdonalds-starbucks-amazon-fast-food-inflation-earnings-1851454892)    Dining out can be a short getaway from the everyday hustle. But today, that simple joy is also a cost-cutting opportunity. [Read More](https://qz.com/dine-brands-q1-2024-applebees-ihop-1851464074)  Spirit Airlines CEO Ted Christie is definitely not bitter about how things went down with the JetBlue Airways merger that was halted by the Justice Department before [eventually being abandoned](https://qz.com/spirit-airlines-jetblue-merger-terminated-1851304886). [Read More](https://qz.com/spirit-airlines-rigged-game-ceo-1851459531)  [NASA](https://jalopnik.com/its-been-20-years-since-nasa-drew-a-penis-on-mars-1851438226) plays nicely with privately owned [SpaceX](https://jalopnik.com/boeing-focused-so-hard-on-making-money-that-it-got-clob-1851457983), but is that something to be concerned about? In [an interview with NPR,](https://www.npr.org/2024/05/06/1249249941/nasa-bill-nelson-moon-artemis-china-starliner) [NASA](https://jalopnik.com/astronauts-wanted-anyone-can-apply-to-nasa-for-the-nex-1851385325) director Bill Nelson assuages any fears of an unsupervised [Elon Musk](https://jalopnik.com/elon-musk-is-alone-at-the-top-1851458028) running a space agency by reminding us that [SpaceX](https://jalopnik.com/spacex-employees-are-getting-hurt-in-alarming-numbers-1851442642) is actually run by its president Gwynne Shotwell. Nelson trusts Shotwell to protect SpaceX from [Elon Musk’s](https://jalopnik.com/elon-musk-says-new-tesla-model-y-is-hiding-range-behind-1851457600) often irrational fever dreams, and thus to protect the billions of American tax dollars granted to SpaceX in government contracts from his wayward spending, too. [Read More](https://qz.com/nasa-elon-musk-spacex-bill-nelson-gwynne-shotwell-1851460614)  There’s more than one way to own a house these days. Sites including real estate startup Pacaso are opening up a new market for people looking to own just a fraction of a house — for a fraction of its total price. Instead of laying claim to an entire single-family home, Pacaso sells luxury single-family homes to groups of buyers, a practice known as fractional home ownership. Someone could, for example, own one-eighth of a multi-million dollar mansion in Florida’s coveted Marco Island for just $736,000. [Read More](https://qz.com/real-estate-housing-market-fractional-home-ownership-1851460546)   The Swiss Army Knife has become such a shorthand for multifunctionality that companies producing does-a-lot-of-stuff wares will often say that their goods are the “Swiss Army Knife” of whatever category they’re a part of. You can use the tool to cut stuff, snip stuff, uncork stuff, file stuff, in some cases download stuff. [Read More](https://qz.com/swiss-army-knife-victorinox-no-blade-1851461754)   Across the U.S., billionaires [reside in cities big and small](https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeswealthteam/2024/05/02/the-richest-person-in-every-state-2024/?sh=526546716514). Many are looking for locations that are close to their businesses or their families, have favorable tax systems, or just have a sunnier climate — and maybe access to a beach. [Read More](https://qz.com/billionaires-states-america-california-new-york-florida-1851454682) We may earn a commission from links on this page.

  When Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the now-disgraced blood testing company Theranos, [received the sentence](https://qz.com/theranos-sunny-balwani-jail-time-elizabeth-holmes-1849868036) for her fraud conviction in 2022, she was originally expected to serve 11 years after she [reported to prison last May](https://qz.com/elizabeth-holmes-does-not-deserve-our-pity-1850496329). But it looks like she’ll be getting out by Labor Day 2032. [Read More](https://qz.com/elizabeth-holmes-sentence-shortened-1851461362)  David Ulevitch, a general partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, is tired of the “BS jobs” at big companies. Ulevitch lamented the proliferation of “irrelevant jobs” at megacorporations and conglomerates [in an interview with Emily Sundberg](https://www.readfeedme.com/p/instagram-italian-or-neighborhood) for her Substack newsletter, “Feed Me,” published Monday. These positions, he argued, have contributed to the decline of the small businesses behind America’s industrial and manufacturing base, and rob profits from shareholders, who are often pensioners and retirees. [Read More](https://qz.com/google-white-collar-staff-andreessen-horowitz-1851460910)  [Bluesky](https://gizmodo.com/you-can-join-bluesky-without-an-invite-now-1851230825) confirmed [Jack Dorsey’s departure](https://bsky.app/profile/bsky.app/post/3krreazpfpu2t) from the decentralized social media company’s board of directors on Sunday. Earlier this weekend, Twitter’s founder and former CEO tweeted a simple “no” in response to a user’s questions to announce his exit from Bluesky, a platform he helped create. [Read More](https://qz.com/jack-dorsey-bluesky-twitter-x-elon-musk-1851458108)    Women still feel like they’re getting the short end of the stick when it comes to pay, benefits, and career growth opportunities. That’s leaving many of them unsatisfied with their jobs. [Read More](https://qz.com/job-satisfaction-conference-board-report-women-men-1851457717)  An executive at Chinese tech giant Baidu wants employees that are seriously devoted to the company — even if it hurts their personal lives. Qu Jing, the company’s head of public relations, posted several videos of herself on Douyin, China’s TikTok, giving employees some [harsh lessons](https://www.ft.com/content/77248f04-ea59-496f-93bc-36d413e8a2c9) about dedication to the company, according to the Financial Times. [Read More](https://qz.com/baidu-china-work-culture-996-tech-hours-1851465990)  The CEO of the hedge fund [trying to buy Paramount](https://qz.com/paramount-sony-apollo-takeover-1851457287) thinks the United States economy has rounded a corner from its high-inflation days and is poised for smoother sailing. [Read More](https://qz.com/soft-landing-economy-apollo-rowan-1851459028)  The gendered feud over the temperature setting in the office or at home might be overblown, new government-led research suggests. The study found little difference between how men and women self-reported the chilliness of their surroundings. There was also no major distinction between the sexes in the temperatures needed for shivering to start occurring. [Read More](https://qz.com/women-feel-colder-men-stereotype-debunked-1851459447)  Baidu’s head of public relations no longer appears to be employed at the tech giant after sparking widespread backlash for [posting several videos telling staff](https://qz.com/baidu-china-work-culture-996-tech-hours-1851465990) she’s “not \[their\] mom” and that she “can make \[them\] jobless in this industry.” [Read More](https://qz.com/baidu-qu-jing-china-work-culture-backlash-1851468962) We may earn a commission from links on this page.

Hello, Memo readers! [Artificial intelligence](https://qz.com/ai-artificial-intelligence-glossary-vocabulary-terms-1851422473) is permeating workplaces, and despite [fears that the technology will replace workers](https://qz.com/ai-workforce-executive-deloitte-survey-1851308804), some overwhelmed employees are embracing it for productivity, a new report from Microsoft and LinkedIn finds. The companies surveyed 31,000 people across 31 countries, and analyzed labor and hiring trends to collect data for the report. What they found was illuminating: three in four workers are using generative AI in the workplace, with 46% saying they started using AI in the last six months. Ninety percent of workers reported that using AI saves them time, and 84% said it helps boost creativity so employees can focus on other work. Meanwhile, 78% of employees across age groups said they are bringing their own AI tools into the office. One driver of employees using AI tools at work is a struggle to keep up with the pace and volume of their work, with 68% of respondents reporting this challenge and 48% of workers saying they feel burned out. Of course, Microsoft is making big bets in the AI arena, [especially with its Copilot office product](https://qz.com/microsoft-customers-complain-copilot-not-good-chatgpt-1851371012) — so gleaning workers’ sentiment around the technology is a savvy move for its own operations. Quartz’s Britney Nguyen [looks into what else the survey uncovered](https://qz.com/ai-workplaces-employees-microsoft-linkedin-survey-1851463931). Quotable: Toxic culture karma ----------------------------- **“I’m not your mom. I only care about results.”** — _Qu Jing, Chinese tech giant Baidu’s former head of public relations,_ [_in videos she posted of herself_](https://qz.com/baidu-china-work-culture-996-tech-hours-1851465990) _about lessons for employees on Douyin, China’s TikTok_ Qu’s taped comments were met with instant outcry on social media over her seeming glorification of an intense work culture that is pervasive among Chinese tech companies. But now it looks like Qu’s threats to make employees jobless have made her [the one that’s out of a job](https://qz.com/baidu-qu-jing-china-work-culture-backlash-1851468962). More from Quartz ---------------- 👀 [Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes’ prison sentence keeps getting shorter](https://qz.com/elizabeth-holmes-sentence-shortened-1851461362) 👀👀 [Half of Google’s white-collar staff ‘does no real work,’ Silicon Valley VC says](https://qz.com/google-white-collar-staff-andreessen-horowitz-1851460910) 🗣️ [California Forever’s CEO defended his controversial city project at Bloomberg Tech](https://qz.com/california-forever-project-ceo-jan-sramek-at-bloomberg-1851472002) 🤖 [Anthropic’s founders took a shot at OpenAI executives](https://qz.com/anthropic-founders-openai-executives-ai-1851469940) 🌈 [Target is only selling Pride Month products in some stores after last year’s backlash](https://qz.com/target-pride-backlash-lgbtq-budlight-nike-retail-1851468806) You got the Memo ---------------- Send questions, comments, and karma wins to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]?cc=&subject=The%20Memo%20feedback%20&body=). This edition of The Memo was written by Britney Nguyen, Rocio Fabbro, and Morgan Haefner.

A judge overseeing the appeal hearing of disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes hinted that she may have a shot at getting her conviction and [at one point 11-year prison sentence appealed](https://qz.com/elizabeth-holmes-sentence-shortened-1851461362). One of Holmes’ attorneys appeared in front of a three-judge panel in a [federal San Francisco court on Tuesday](https://abcnews.go.com/US/theranos-founder-elizabeth-holmes-appeal-heard-san-francisco/story?id=110980110) to make the case for Holmes, who was convicted in November 2022 of defrauding investors with misleading claims about Theranos’s technology. Holmes founded Theranos in 2003 when she was 19 years old with the aim to revolutionize blood testing. Holmes claimed that Theranos had developed a device that could run dozens of tests from blood drawn from single pinprick. The company had raised [$700 million from big-name investors](https://qz.com/1379288/elizabeth-holmess-theranos-is-shutting-down) like former U.S. secretary of education Betsy DeVos, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and the heirs of Walmart founder Sam Walton. However, an exposé by Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou revealed that Theranos’ blood tests failed to meet the claims made by the company. Holmes’ lawyers are now claiming that she did not knowingly mislead investors. “The public narrative regarding the spectacle of Theranos’ downfall is that the company’s technology simply did not work and Holmes knew it,” the attorneys wrote in a [court filing in November](https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/uploads/cases-of-interest/2023/elizabeth-holmes/22-10-312-77-11-13-2023-reply+brief.pdf). “But Holmes’ intent and knowledge on this central question were intensely contested at trial.” They added, “Substantial evidence showed that Holmes and Theranos’ scientists believed in good faith that Theranos had developed technology that could accurately run virtually any blood test.” Holmes’ attorney Amy Saharia also argued in court today that Judge Edward Davila, who presided over Holmes’ original trial, [unfairly allowed](https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/06/11/elizabeth-holmes-appears-to-gain-ground-as-her-appeal-is-heard/) former Theranos scientist Kingshuk Das to give expert testimony before the jury about his opinions on Theranos’ technology. NBC reporter Scott Budman [posted Tuesday on X](https://x.com/scottbudman/status/1800573333861486848) that appellate court Judge Ryan Nelson said, “They do have a pretty good basis for some unfairness here... There is a pretty good story here for Ms. Holmes.” The judges did not say when they would make a decision on the appeal.

A panel of federal judges spent two hours on Tuesday wrestling with a series of legal issues raised in an attempt to overturn a fraud conviction that sent Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes to prison after a meteoric rise to Silicon Valley stardom SAN FRANCISCO -- A panel of federal judges spent two hours on Tuesday wrestling with a series of legal issues raised in an attempt to overturn a fraud conviction that sent Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes to prison after a meteoric rise to Silicon Valley stardom. The hearing held in the San Francisco appeals greed and hubris court came nearly two-and-half years after [a jury convicted Holmes](https://apnews.com/article/elizabeth-holmes-trial-theranos-ceo-fb79a29d3c426a5cadee7ec5734b6f24) for [orchestrating a blood-testing scam](https://apnews.com/article/elizabeth-holmes-fraud-theranos-prison-silicon-valley-9552b17d0c03f81c71b53fb4a994462b) that became a parable about [greed and hubris in Silicon Valley.](https://apnews.com/article/elizabeth-holmes-fraud-theranos-prison-silicon-valley-9552b17d0c03f81c71b53fb4a994462b) Holmes' instrument of deception was Theranos, a Palo Alto, California, startup that she founded shortly after dropping out of Stanford University in 2003 with her sights set on revolutionizing the health-care industry. Holmes, who did not attend the hearing, is currently serving an 11-year sentence [in a Bryan, Texas prison](https://apnews.com/article/elizabeth-holmes-theranos-prison-fraud-texas-71bcdf58a0db73252cc2697fb9f73c8a). But Holmes' parents and her partner — the father of her two young children — Billy Evans sat in the front row of the courtroom listening intently to the oral arguments. All three federal prosecutors who presented the U.S Justice Department's case during the original four-month trial were sitting in the courtroom audience, including two attorneys — Jeffrey Schenk and John Bostic — who have since gone to work for private law firms. Three appeals court judges — Jacqueline Nguyen, Ryan Nelson and Mary Schroeder — gave few clues into whether they leaned toward upholding or overturning Holmes' conviction. However, they periodically made it clear that it would take compelling evidence for them to throw out the jury's verdict. Nelson seemed the most torn of the three judges, showing some sympathy when Holmes’ attorney Amy Saharia said the outcome of her trial deserved close scrutiny because the jury also acquitted her on four other counts of fraud and conspiracy and was unable to reach a verdict on three other counts. Before adjourning the hearing, Nguyen said a ruling would be issued in “due course” without providing a specific timeline. Appeals courts can take anywhere from a few weeks to more than a year before ruling on appeals involving criminal convictions. Holmes will remain in prison, with a currently scheduled release date of August 2032 — earlier than her full sentence because of her good behavior so far. A decade ago, Theranos had become such a hot healthcare commodity that it was called an exemplar of U.S. ingenuity by several prominent people, including then-Vice President Joe Biden. Holmes had emerged as a media sensation with a fortune worth $4.5 billion. The excitement stemmed from Holmes' claim that Theranos-designed devices could scan a few drops of human blood for hundreds of potential diseases. But the devices produced unreliable results that both Holmes and her former business partner and lover at the time, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, attempted to hide. Once the glaring flaws of its technology were exposed, Theranos collapsed in a scandal that led to criminal charges being filed against both Holmes and Balwani. Prosecutors hoped to break a "fake it ‘til you make it'' mentality that had been adopted by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs hoping to strike it rich with still-buggy products. Besides hearing from Holmes' lawyers Tuesday, the panel of appeals judges also listened to arguments from another flank of attorneys representing Balwani, who is trying to overturn the 13-year prison sentence he received after [his July 2022 conviction](https://apnews.com/article/ramesh-balwani-theranos-verdict-d9fb19f13a1c930a6ff091dff10a0b5d) for fraud and conspiracy in a separate trial. Balwani, 58, contends federal prosecutors distorted evidence to bias the jury against him while weaving a different narrative than the story they presented during Holmes' trial, which was completed shortly before it began in March 2022. Unlike Holmes, Balwani was convicted on all 12 felony counts of fraud and conspiracy facing him, a factor that contributed to his lengthier prison sentence. He is currently scheduled to be released from a Southern California federal prison in November 2033.

Lawyers for [Elizabeth Holmes](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/elizabeth-holmes), founder of failed blood testing company Theranos, urged judges in a federal appeals court on Tuesday to overturn the fraud conviction that earned her an 11-year prison sentence. In an appeal hearing for both Holmes and company president Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, lawyers argued improper procedures and evidence in both cases warrant new trials. Holmes, who started Theranos as a college student and became its public face, was indicted alongside Balwani, her former romantic partner, in 2018. The two were tried separately in 2022 and sentenced later that year to [11 years and three months](https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/elizabeth-holmes-faces-sentencing-friday-defrauding-theranos-investors-2022-11-18/), and [12 years and 11 months](https://www.reuters.com/legal/ex-theranos-president-balwani-sentenced-nearly-13-years-fraud-2022-12-07/), respectively. Her legal team [filed an appeal](https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/elizabeth-holmes-appeals-conviction-theranos-fraud-rcna80488) of her conviction in April 2023, but Tuesday marked the first court hearing on the matter. Amy Saharia, Holmes’ lawyer, told a three-judge panel of the ninth US circuit court of appeals in San Francisco that the [Theranos](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/theranos) founder believed she was telling the truth when she told investors that Theranos’s miniature blood testing device could accurately run a broad array of medical diagnostic tests on a small amount of blood. “There were in fact many good people working at Theranos, and believing they had good technology,” Saharia [said](https://www.courthousenews.com/elizabeth-holmes-theranos-partner-appeal-convictions-to-ninth-circuit/). “Holmes believed that, and that is what she was telling investors.” Saharia’s argument also focused on issues with two main witnesses for the prosecution: former Theranos employee Kingshuk Das, who testified as a scientific expert about Theranos’s product and former laboratory director Adam Rosendorff. Holmes’ team argued Das should have faced cross-examination about his qualifications and the judge should have allowed Holmes to introduce more evidence attacking Rosendorff, including details of a government investigation of his work after leaving Theranos. Those mistakes could have made the difference in the “close” case, in which jurors were not able to reach a verdict on most counts against Holmes after seven days of deliberations. The assistant US attorney Kelly Volkar, arguing for the government, disputed that Das had improperly testified as an expert, saying he was called to talk about his personal experience at Theranos. She also said that “it was not really contested that the device did not work”. The judges had skeptical questions for both sides and did not clearly indicate how they would rule. Circuit judge Ryan Nelson said that, even without the disputed testimony, “there was, it seemed to me, pretty overwhelming evidence”. Circuit judges Jacqueline Nguyen and Mary Schroeder said that much of Das’s testimony concerned what he observed at the company, not his scientific opinions, as Saharia argued. Nguyen and Nelson, however, also both told Volkar that they had concerns about what opinions Das was allowed to give during the trial. “I have some problems with how this happened,” Nelson said. Jeffrey Coopersmith, Balwani’s lawyer, argued that prosecutors had gone beyond what was in the indictment against his client by introducing evidence that the commercial testing technology Theranos secretly used was not reliable. The judges appeared more skeptical of that argument, though again did not clearly signal how they would rule. Appeals can take weeks or months to be decided. Representatives from Holmes’s legal team did not respond to request for comment. _Reuters contributed to this report_

A panel of federal judges have spent two hours wrestling with a series of legal issues raised in an attempt to overturn a fraud conviction that sent Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes to prison after a meteoric rise to Silicon Valley stardom SAN FRANCISCO -- A panel of federal judges spent two hours on Tuesday wrestling with a series of legal issues raised in an attempt to overturn a fraud conviction that sent Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes to prison after a meteoric rise to Silicon Valley stardom. The hearing held in the San Francisco appeals court came nearly 2 1/2 years after [a jury convicted Holmes](https://apnews.com/article/elizabeth-holmes-trial-theranos-ceo-fb79a29d3c426a5cadee7ec5734b6f24) for [orchestrating a blood-testing scam](https://apnews.com/article/elizabeth-holmes-fraud-theranos-prison-silicon-valley-9552b17d0c03f81c71b53fb4a994462b) that became a parable about [greed and hubris in Silicon Valley.](https://apnews.com/article/elizabeth-holmes-fraud-theranos-prison-silicon-valley-9552b17d0c03f81c71b53fb4a994462b) Holmes' instrument of deception was Theranos, a Palo Alto, California, startup that she founded shortly after dropping out of Stanford University in 2003 with her sights set on revolutionizing the health care industry. Holmes, who did not attend the hearing, is currently serving an 11-year sentence [in a Bryan, Texas prison](https://apnews.com/article/elizabeth-holmes-theranos-prison-fraud-texas-71bcdf58a0db73252cc2697fb9f73c8a). But Holmes' parents and her partner Billy Evans — the father of her two young children — sat in the front row of the courtroom listening intently to the oral arguments. All three federal prosecutors who presented the U.S. Justice Department's case during the original four-month trial were sitting in the courtroom audience, including two attorneys — Jeffrey Schenk and John Bostic — who have since gone to work for private law firms. Three appeals court judges — Jacqueline Nguyen, Ryan Nelson and Mary Schroeder — gave few clues into whether they leaned toward upholding or overturning Holmes' conviction. However, they periodically made it clear that it would take compelling evidence for them to throw out the jury's verdict. Nelson seemed the most torn of the three judges, showing some sympathy when Holmes’ attorney Amy Saharia said the outcome of her trial deserved close scrutiny because the jury also acquitted her on four other counts of fraud and conspiracy and was unable to reach a verdict on three other counts. Before adjourning the hearing, Nguyen said a ruling would be issued in “due course” without providing a specific timeline. Appeals courts can take anywhere from a few weeks to more than a year before ruling on appeals involving criminal convictions. Holmes will remain in prison, with a currently scheduled release date of August 2032 — earlier than her full sentence because of her good behavior so far. A decade ago, Theranos had become such a hot health care commodity that it was called an exemplar of U.S. ingenuity by several prominent people, including then-Vice President Joe Biden. Holmes had emerged as a media sensation with a fortune worth $4.5 billion. The excitement stemmed from Holmes' claim that Theranos-designed devices could scan a few drops of human blood for hundreds of potential diseases. But the devices produced unreliable results that both Holmes and her former business partner and lover at the time, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, attempted to hide. Once the glaring flaws of its technology were exposed, Theranos collapsed in a scandal that led to criminal charges being filed against both Holmes and Balwani. Prosecutors hoped to break a "fake-it-till-you-make-it'' mentality that had been adopted by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs hoping to strike it rich with still-buggy products. Besides hearing from Holmes' lawyers Tuesday, the panel of appeals judges also listened to arguments from another flank of attorneys representing Balwani, who is trying to overturn the 13-year prison sentence he received after [his July 2022 conviction](https://apnews.com/article/ramesh-balwani-theranos-verdict-d9fb19f13a1c930a6ff091dff10a0b5d) for fraud and conspiracy in a separate trial. Balwani, 58, contends federal prosecutors distorted evidence to bias the jury against him while weaving a different narrative than the story they presented during Holmes' trial, which was completed shortly before Balwani's trial began in March 2022. Unlike Holmes, Balwani was convicted on all 12 felony counts of fraud and conspiracy facing him, a factor that contributed to his lengthier prison sentence. He is currently scheduled to be released from a Southern California federal prison in November 2033.

 Archegos Capital Management founder and chief executive Sung Kook “Bill” Hwang could land in prison for the rest of his life on charges related to the 2021 collapse of his $36 billion private investment firm. On Wednesday, a [jury found Hwang guilty](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/10/business/archegos-bill-hwang-guilty.html) on 10 counts of a range of fraud charges and market manipulation ahead of the firm’s default, which lost several big Wall Street banks billions of dollars and [contributed to Credit Suisse’s demise](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/business/credit-suisse-archegos.html). Patrick Halligan, the former chief financial officer of Archegos, was also convicted on three charges, including conspiracy, securities fraud, and wire fraud. The two, who remain free on bail, are set to appear for sentencing on October 28. Each count against them carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Click through to see how long some of the biggest U.S. fraudsters have served — or are currently serving — in prison.  Bernie Madoff was behind perhaps one of the highest-profile fraud cases in the U.S. Madoff and his company, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, ran a $65 billion Ponzi scheme — the largest known of such fraud — spanning nearly two decades. He was arrested and charged with [11 counts of fraud](https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/programs/victim-witness-services/united-states-v-bernard-l-madoff-and-related-cases#:~:text=On%20December%2011%2C%202008%2C%20Bernard,and%20to%20appoint%20a%20receiver.) in December 2008. Three months later, Madoff pleaded guilty to all counts, and was later sentenced to 150 years in prison and ordered to pay $170 billion in restitution to his victims. In 2020, Madoff requested to be [immediately released from prison](https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/madoff-sentence-reduction) based on his various medical conditions, according to the Department of Justice. He [died behind bars](https://apnews.com/article/bernie-madoff-dead-9d9bd8065708384e0bf0c840bd1ae711) at the age of 82 in April 2021.  In 2012, Allen Stanford was sentenced to 110 years in prison for orchestrating a more than $7 billion Ponzi scheme through his company, Stanford Financial Group. He was also ordered to pay $5.9 billion. When handing down the sentence, the [presiding judge said](https://web.archive.org/web/20140104213458/http://www.justice.gov/usao/txs/1News/Releases/2012%20June/120614%20Stanford.html) Stanford orchestrated “one of the most egregious frauds ever presented to a trial jury in federal court.” The now 74-year-old Stanford [told the BBC in 2016](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-35283297) that he plans to clear his name — and cut his lengthy sentence short. “I didn’t do anything wrong” he told the publication from a maximum security penitentiary in Florida. “Will I apologize? No. Mark my words... I am going to walk out the doors of this place a free man.”  [Sam Bankman-Fried](https://qz.com/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-sbf-rise-fall-prison-sentence-1851354212), founder and former chief executive of collapsed cryptocurrency trading platform FTX, was [sentenced to 25 years in prison](https://qz.com/sam-bankman-fried-prison-sentence-ftx-collapse-1851371007) in March. Bankman-Fried was found guilty of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy including wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering. In addition to the prison sentence, the judge also ordered a forfeiture of $11.2 billion in assets. Judge Lewis Kaplan found that Bankman-Fried’s crimes resulted in losses to victims of more than $550 million — the maximum finding allowed under federal sentencing guidelines. Kaplan said investors lost $1.7 billion, Alameda lenders lost $1.3 billion, and FTX customers lost $8 billion. FTX said in May that [virtually all of its customers will get their money back](https://qz.com/ftx-money-back-sam-bankman-fried-collapse-bankruptcy-1851463007). The company forecasts that the total value of the assets, converted to cash and made available for distribution, will be between $14.5 and $16.3 billion. “My useful life is probably over,” Bankman-Fried said in an address to the courtroom prior to his sentencing. “It’s been over for a while now.”  Jeffrey Skilling helmed Enron Corporation, one of world’s biggest energy companies, in the lead up to its [December 2001 collapse](https://www.investopedia.com/updates/enron-scandal-summary/). Despite claiming to have than $60 billion in assets, Enron declared bankruptcy after it was found to have covered up substantial debts, losses, and bad assets through obscure accounting methods and special-purpose vehicles. Thousands of people lost their jobs and investors lost billions. In connection to Enron’s downfall, Skilling was convicted on 19 criminal counts including fraud, conspiracy, and insider trading in 2006. He was handed a 24-years prison sentence, and was ordered to pay $42 billion to be distributed to victims. Skilling [ended up serving half that](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/disgraced-enron-chief-jeffrey-skilling-released-federal-custody-n974361) before his February 2019 release following [several appeals](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-enron-ceo-jeffrey-skilling-resentenced-168-months-fraud-conspiracy-charges).  Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the now-disgraced blood testing company Theranos, [was sentenced to serve 11 years](https://qz.com/theranos-sunny-balwani-jail-time-elizabeth-holmes-1849868036) in connection with her 2022 fraud conviction. Sunny Balwani, Holmes’ ex-business and romantic partner, was sentenced to nearly 13 years. According to the convictions, the pair knowingly misled and defrauded investors, patients, and doctors about Theranos’ at-home finger-prick blood testing kit. They overpromised the capabilities of the tech and made false statements about the company’s financial health. Holmes reported [reported to prison last May](https://qz.com/elizabeth-holmes-does-not-deserve-our-pity-1850496329), but her sentence appears to have already been [reduced by a few months](https://qz.com/elizabeth-holmes-sentence-shortened-1851461362). We may earn a commission from links on this page.

“Reality is a trance. Your reality is a trance of your own making. Or someone else’s making who doesn’t have your greatest good in mind.” The words are spoken by a woman wearing a white turban and dark jacket over a flowing white robe, sitting next to a glass of water perched on a metal table. So begins [Breath of Fire](https://www.hbo.com/breath-of-fire), a documentary about Katie Griggs, aka Guru Jagat. The film tells how Griggs went from YouTube astrologer to yoga master, spiritual guru and wellness girlboss with followers including celebrities such as Russell Brand, Kate Hudson and Alicia Keys. She had a business school, podcast, festival and two clothing lines and was chief executive of seven international companies. But as journalist Hayley Phelan puts it in Breath of Fire, “I never understood why there weren’t more questions about a white woman in a turban.” Griggs was also a would-be cult leader who bullied staff, practised cultural appropriation and embraced conspiracy theories such as QAnon before her unexpected death at the age of 41. She has been called “[the Elizabeth Holmes of yoga](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/breath-of-fire-guru-jagat-docuseries)”. The four-part docuseries, which began last week on [HBO](https://www.theguardian.com/media/hbo), is a smartly edited collage of 35mm films, VHS footage from the 1980s and videos mined from TikTok and Instagram. This is combined with new interviews with those who fell under Griggs’s spell as they sought community, rituals and spiritual fulfillment outside established religion. This aspect struck a chord with the film’s directors, Hayley Pappas and Smiley Stevens, themselves millennials with an interest in spirituality. Pappas, 34, says via Zoom from Los Angeles: “So much of it spoke to a shared sentiment that we could feel and our peers could feel. This sense of seeking and looking for spirituality in less conventional places, particularly as these traditional religious institutions have lost their influence with our peers.” Griggs was born on a Colorado farm in the summer of 1979. She was raised by a single mother, a dance movement therapist who exposed Griggs to different forms of spirituality, from tarot cards to Tibetan prayer flags. Pappas says: “Katie was raised around a lot of fascinating conversations and discussions around self-transformation and exploration of the psyche and spirituality.” Griggs dropped out of university in her early 20s but went on to earn a degree from Antioch College in Ohio. She looked for answers outside the old religions and found them in kundalini, a form of yoga that involves intense breath work, repetitive poses and wearing all white to expand the aura by exactly 1ft, as well as abstention from recreational drugs and alcohol. Kundalini was popularised in America by Harbhajan Singh Khalsa, a customs inspector at the Delhi airport who, having got a woman pregnant, fled India for the US in the late 1960s. In classic American fashion, he had a blank canvas on which to reinvent himself and make his fortune. Styling himself as [Yogi Bhajan](https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/09/us/yogi-bhajan-75-boss-of-worlds-spiritual-and-capitalistic-dies.html), he claimed that kundalini was an ancient form of yoga long kept secret; in reality he made it up himself. Bhajan gained a grassroots following, built ashrams all over America and helped create 17 businesses. He was accused of rape and sexual abuse by several dozen of his female followers, as well as child abuse and widespread fraud. [An investigation](https://www.gurumag.com/yogi-bhajan-investigation-finds-rape-group-sex-abuse/?ref=gurumag.com) carried out after his death in 2004 found the allegations to be credible. Yet Griggs presented herself as his spiritual heir and staunch defender; to some, his unlikely reincarnation. She claimed that Bhajan gave her the name Guru Jagat. She founded [the Ra Ma Institute](https://ramayogainstitute.com/), turning a kundalini yoga studio into a multimillion-dollar commercial empire. She combined mastery of social media with charisma, humour and a brand of Cardi B-style feminism that resonated with millennial women. Stevens, 36, reflects: “We had to watch lots and lots of footage of her teaching and we were like, we could actually hang out with this person. We actually thought she’s super charismatic and would make funny jokes all the time too. That definitely helped her in her ascent.” Griggs was also adept at marketing and branding her Ra Ma studio. “They did a really good job of delivering something that spoke to millennials and had great graphic design and cool colours and funny videos. She was on TikTok and she was on Instagram and she was doing all of the things that actually spoke to millennials. She was intentional about her marketing and did quite a good job of that.” Pappas adds: “She leveraged social media in an intentional and effective way. She brought spirituality, particularly kundalini, into the social media landscape and she also tapped into a feminist ideology and sentiment. “She converged with girlboss culture and she embodied and became the girlboss, if you will, of the spiritual circles in a lot of ways. Katie was somebody who was always looking for her own stage and this was the stage where she found her audience and she found what she would say her calling.” Griggs wore white flowing clothes and wrapped her hair in a turban in what critics saw as a blatant attempt to adopt the trappings of the Sikh religion and imbue herself with faux-spirituality. [Sundeep Morrison](https://sundeepmorrison.com/), a Sikh activist and journalist, says in the film: “As a Sikh it was alarming and it was heartbreaking seeing our scriptures, our prayers used as decoration. And even the article of faith of the turban is seen as a sacred symbol and for to her to wear it with her hair sticking out is bastardising the article of faith.” Other interviewees have mixed feelings, recalling how they came to regard Griggs as a friend yet how she could also be abusive to them. _“_They could still access what it was that drew them to her, what it was that kept them there so long and the good parts of her that they did enjoy. “And at the same time, they were very aware of and angry about her various wrongdoings and the way that she treated individuals and who she ultimately became in the end. It was particularly messy because of how drastically she evolved over those years.” [](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/oct/28/guru-jagat-katie-griggs-yoga-documentary-breath-of-fire#img-2) Guru Jagat Photograph: HBO Griggs fell for [QAnon and other far-right conspiracy theories](https://www.npr.org/2023/01/02/1146318331/yoga-guru-qanon-conspiracy-theories). She questioned the existence of Covid-19 and refused to be vaccinated. She also presided over a toxic atmosphere at her company Phelan, who interviewed Griggs and is among the talking heads in the documentary, [wrote in Vanity Fair magazine in 2021](https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2021/11/the-second-coming-of-guru-jagat): “Jagat could be abusive, irrational, and was prone to lying; she spent money like water and often came up short when it was time to pay her employees – many of whom, despite being full-time staffers with ‘director’ in their titles, made far below minimum wage and were asked to file as independent contractors, depriving them of benefits like health care. “In a company-wide group chat, Jagat wrote, ‘Fuck you all’ for not drafting a promotional email as she’d wished and threatened another group: ‘I will ring \[_sic_\] your figurative necks if not every photo youve ever taken up until now isnt in the dropbox.’” Pappas says: “She was taking advantage of people’s various vulnerabilities. She was, as a spiritual teacher, learning a lot of sensitive information about these people but then when they misstepped, when they did wrong in her eyes, she would use that against them in front of others in public. “A lot of behaviour if she was in squarely one box, as a spiritual teacher or as a boss or as a colleague, perhaps would have been a little bit more understandable or you could make sense of it, but where it became so complicated was that she was filling all of these roles simultaneously for these people.” It is hard to resist parallels with Holmes, the young entrepreneur whose startup company promised to revolutionise blood testing, only to be eventually [indicted](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jun/15/theranos-elizabeth-holmes-ramesh-balwani-criminal-charges) and jailed on charges involving defrauding investors and deceiving patients and doctors. Pappas comments: “You can draw a clear line in comparison to their ambition. You can draw a pretty clear comparison to both their rapid ascent and to everybody’s gleefulness to cheer them on while they were on that rise. At the same time as and when they made mistakes and they showed their human flaws, perhaps an outsized reaction to those. “Not to dismiss or excuse any of their behaviour, but one of the things that felt important to us was to make it clear that, when looking at Guru Jagat and Yogi Bhajan, we’re talking about two very different people and two very different extents of harm. Guru Jagat’s wrongdoings pale in comparison to those of Yogi Bhajan and his abuses, and in some ways – and perhaps the Elizabeth Holmes comparison – comes with a bit of the female double standard that we see for women who rise to power in this way.” Griggs’s business and personal health both went into decline. Pappas says: “The walls are caving in on her with comments that she’s made publicly. As this self-proclaimed feminist, she winds up defending a man who has been accused and now been proven to have sexually assaulted and abused many women of various ages. Her mom said she joined the dark side_.”_ [Griggs died in 2021](https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/obituary-kundalini-yoga-teacher-guru-125643314.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMVQGHOK3ECgxmMvjgPsCOuijedd6s1z3FPDOo9XOM-yOHXAkDrppOZoR1xVDa7OY1vJnGVkjIhCXRGI5l9QBo-LEAHw8zgB6Tybp8SNrScboYfLnO-4AVMwOwjBLPsXAndIA3G99vwurVSQgxW5PELpbjX3z4uMTTQ0ghnwj2D-) of cardiac arrest, caused by a pulmonary embolism following surgery on her left ankle, and was buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The Vanity Fair article told how speaker after speaker took to the podium to eulogise her as a “tantric soul”, “a privileged soul”, an “incredibly brilliant light”, divine healer, and the “mother of creation culture”. Her community has since undergone a reckoning and Ra Ma recently closed down its Los Angeles studio, though it continues in New York and Mallorca. Pappas hopes that, in a time of social media disinformation, the film will encourage some healthy scepticism and critical inquiry about the multibillion-dollar wellness industry. “I hope that people can see a bit of themselves in these characters and relate a bit to these stories, as extreme as they can seem and as much as I think it’s easy to hear a ‘cult story’ and think that could never happen to me or ‘that’s insane.’ “What we wanted to do is portray our characters as relatable and their desires and their longings as relatable and understanding and show how slippery that slope is and show where that exploitation takes place. That is why we chose to go in through Guru Jagat. Her evolution from Katie Griggs, this well-intentioned seeker, to Guru Jagat, this particularly manipulative guru, felt fascinating and emblematic of this world – and what can be so devastating about it.” * Breath of Fire airs on HBO and streams on Max in the US with a UK date to be announced

 It’s become a running joke online that if you end up on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, your chances of running into trouble with the law just exponentially rose. That’s because, in the past decade, a slew of people once featured prominently by Forbes have ended up in prison — mostly for financial crimes. Check out which former honorees ended up behind bars, or might soon be there:  [Sam Bankman-Fried](https://qz.com/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-sbf-rise-fall-prison-sentence-1851354212), the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, made the list in 2021 — but in March 2024 he was [sentenced to 25 years in prison](https://qz.com/sam-bankman-fried-cryptocurrency-crime-prison-sentences-1851665731) after being convicted on seven counts of fraud. Bankman-Fried defrauded hundreds of thousands of customers, taking money from their accounts to bribe Chinese officials, finance his luxury Caribbean home, and make illegal political donations.   [Elizabeth Holmes](https://qz.com/elizabeth-holmes-appeal-1851533823) made the Forbes 30 Under 30 List in 2015 for founding Theranos, a company she claimed would revolutionize blood testing but turned out to be a big lie. She is currently in prison after being [sentenced to 11 years](https://qz.com/elizabeth-holmes-sentence-shortened-1851461362) for defrauding her investors.  [Martin Shkreli](https://qz.com/martin-shkreli-is-back-in-business-and-the-ftc-has-que-1850017489), also known as “Pharma Bro,” graced the pages of the Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2012. [In 2017](https://qz.com/983721/martin-shkreli-and-his-cancer-drug-price-gouging-have-made-for-a-catchy-off-broadway-musical), he was sentenced to seven years in prison after being convicted of two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy. Prosecutors said he ran his company like a Ponzi scheme and defrauded investors. He was also fined [more than $64 million](https://qz.com/supreme-court-martin-shkreli-fine-1851666753) in a civil suit.  Charlie Javice, the founder of the financial aid startup Frank ([JPM](https://qz.com/quote/JPM)), made the list in 2017. But in 2023, she was [indicted on four counts](https://qz.com/the-founder-of-frank-a-student-loan-company-was-crimi-1850300109?_gl=1*20kbqb*_ga*ODcwNjAwMDMzLjE3MjUzNzM4NzQ.*_ga_V4QNJTT5L0*MTczMzMzNTExMC4xMzQuMS4xNzMzMzM1MzgyLjU4LjAuMA..) of fraud and conspiracy for allegedly lying about her company to get JPMorgan Chase to buy it.  Cody Wilson, a self-described crypto-anarchist, made the 2014 list for creating the world’s first fully 3D-printed gun, but in 2019 took a plea deal related to allegations that he sexually assaulted a minor and was given seven years of probation.  Nate Paul graced the pages of Forbes’ 30 under 30 list in 2016 for founding a real estate investment firm. Since then, he’s been marred in a bevy of legal issues. Paul is facing federal criminal charges for bank fraud, and in November started serving a 10-day jail sentence after being held in contempt of court related to accusations of financial mismanagement.  [Joanna Smith-Griffin](https://qz.com/ai-ceo-joanna-smith-griffin-arrested-allhere-1851703910) made Forbes’ list in 2021 for her AI Education startup AllHere Education. She was arrested in November and charged with securities fraud, wire fraud, and identity theft. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams of the Southern District of New York claimed that “Smith-Griffin orchestrated a deliberate and calculated scheme to deceive investors in AllHere Education, Inc., inflating the company’s financials to secure millions of dollars under false pretenses. The law does not turn a blind eye to those who allegedly distort financial realities for personal gain.” We may earn a commission from links on this page.

NEW YORK -- Former talk show host Carlos Watson was sentenced Monday to nearly 10 years in prison in a federal [financial conspiracy case](https://apnews.com/article/carlos-watson-ozy-media-trial-d7551599ec5dfb2f193fdf8be1fc6ead) that cast his once-buzzy Ozy Media as an extreme of fake-it-'til-you-make-it startup culture. In one example, another Ozy executive impersonated a YouTube executive to hype Ozy to investment bankers — while Watson coached him, prosecutors said. Watson, 55, and the now-defunct company [were found guilty](https://apnews.com/article/carlos-watson-ozy-media-trial-80052622c5c0cc6db0a0e01b289acbf6) last summer of charges including wire fraud conspiracy. He has denied the allegations and plans to appeal. “I loved what we built with Ozy,” he said in court Monday, initially addressing supporters in the audience before the judge suggested he turn around. Watson told the judge he was a target of “selective prosecution” as a Black entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, where African American executives [have been disproportionately few](https://www.eeoc.gov/special-report/diversity-high-tech), and he called the case “a modern lynching.” “I made mistakes. I'm very, very sorry that people are hurt, myself included,” he said, but “I don't think it's fair.” Watson, who faced a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison and potentially as much as 37 years, remains free for now on $3 million bond. He is to surrender to prison March 28. Any restitution will be determined after a hearing in February. U.S. District Judge Eric Komitee said Monday that the “quantum of dishonesty in this case is exceptional.” “Your internal apparatus for separating truth from fiction became badly miscalibrated,” he told Watson in sentencing him. Prosecutors accused the former cable news commentator and host of playing a leading role in a scheme to deceive Ozy investors and lenders by inflating revenue numbers, touting deals and offers that were nonexistent or not finalized, and flashing other false indications of Ozy's success. Watson even listened in and texted talking points while his co-founder posed as a YouTube executive to praise Ozy on a phone call with potential investors, prosecutors said. “His incessant and deliberate lies demonstrated not only a brazen disregard for the rule of law, but also a contempt for the values of honesty and fairness that should underlie American entrepreneurship,” Brooklyn-based U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement Monday. His office prosecuted the case. During the trial, Watson's defense blamed any misrepresentations on others, particularly co-founder Samir Rao and former Ozy chief of staff Suzee Han. She and Rao pleaded guilty, are awaiting sentencing and testified against Watson. Watson portrayed himself Monday as a founder who put everything he had into his company, saying that he took an average salary of around $51,000 from Ozy in its final years, has triple-mortgaged his home and drives a 15-year-old car. After court, he questioned why Brooklyn-based federal prosecutors had gone after a California-based company and founder. Prosecutors declined to comment; the indictment alleged that scheming happened in the Brooklyn-based jurisdiction and elsewhere. “I do think this is an attack on Black excellence,” Watson said after noting that his sentence wasn't far from the [11-year term](https://apnews.com/article/elizabeth-holmes-theranos-prison-early-release-537ea5a5b9f9bed735a9f62a7a4dfb07) meted out to Elizabeth Holmes. She's the white former Silicon Valley CEO convicted of duping investors in the Theranos blood-testing device hoax. There's no parallel between faking blood test results and Ozy's roster of real programs and events, Watson said. Ozy, founded in 2012, was styled as a hub of news and culture for millennials with a global outlook. Watson boasted an impressive resume: degrees from Harvard University and Stanford Law School, a stint on Wall Street, on-air gigs at CNN and MSNBC, and entrepreneurial chops. Ozy Media was his second startup, coming a decade after he sold a test-prep company that he had founded while in his 20s. Mountain View, California-based Ozy produced TV shows, newsletters, podcasts, and a [music-and-ideas festival](https://apnews.com/weather-general-news-e007e3239f4c43b2b4b9ea9cab184b91). Watson hosted several of the TV programs, including the Emmy-winning “Black Women OWN the Conversation,” which appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Network. Ozy snagged big advertisers, clients and grants. But beneath the outward signs of success was an overextended company that struggled — and dissembled — to stay afloat after 2017, according to insiders' testimony. The company strained to make payroll, ran late on rent and took out pricey cash advances to pay bills, former finance vice president Janeen Poutre told jurors. Meanwhile, Ozy gave prospective investors much bigger revenue numbers than those it reported to accountants, according to testimony and documents. [On the witness stand](https://apnews.com/article/carlos-watson-ozy-media-trial-d7551599ec5dfb2f193fdf8be1fc6ead) in July, Watson said the company's cash squeezes were just a startup norm and its investors knew they were getting unaudited numbers that could change. Only one of those investors spoke at the sentencing — Beverly Watson, who stands by her brother. She told the court Monday that her biggest loss was “this important platform that elevated people and ideas that weren't being heard before.” Ozy [disintegrated in 2021](https://apnews.com/article/business-media-795759da5d8412c78143938c647eabe8), after a New York Times column disclosed the phone-call impersonation gambit and raised questions about the true size of the startup's audience.

NEW YORK -- Former talk show host Carlos Watson was sentenced Monday to nearly 10 years in prison in a federal [financial conspiracy case](https://apnews.com/article/carlos-watson-ozy-media-trial-d7551599ec5dfb2f193fdf8be1fc6ead) that cast his once-buzzy Ozy Media as an extreme of fake-it-'til-you-make-it startup culture. In one example, another Ozy executive impersonated a YouTube executive to hype Ozy to investment bankers — while Watson coached him, prosecutors said. Watson, 55, and the now-defunct company [were found guilty](https://apnews.com/article/carlos-watson-ozy-media-trial-80052622c5c0cc6db0a0e01b289acbf6) last summer of charges including wire fraud conspiracy. He has denied the allegations and plans to appeal. “I loved what we built with Ozy,” he said in court Monday, initially addressing supporters in the audience before the judge suggested he turn around. Watson told the judge he was a target of “selective prosecution” as a Black entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, where African American executives [have been disproportionately few](https://www.eeoc.gov/special-report/diversity-high-tech), and he called the case “a modern lynching.” “I made mistakes. I'm very, very sorry that people are hurt, myself included,” he said, but “I don't think it's fair.” Watson, who faced a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison and potentially as much as 37 years, remains free for now on $3 million bond. He is to surrender to prison March 28. Any restitution will be determined after a hearing in February. U.S. District Judge Eric Komitee said Monday that the “quantum of dishonesty in this case is exceptional.” “Your internal apparatus for separating truth from fiction became badly miscalibrated,” he told Watson in sentencing him. Prosecutors accused the former cable news commentator and host of playing a leading role in a scheme to deceive Ozy investors and lenders by inflating revenue numbers, touting deals and offers that were nonexistent or not finalized, and flashing other false indications of Ozy's success. Watson even listened in and texted talking points while his co-founder posed as a YouTube executive to praise Ozy on a phone call with potential investors, prosecutors said. “His incessant and deliberate lies demonstrated not only a brazen disregard for the rule of law, but also a contempt for the values of honesty and fairness that should underlie American entrepreneurship,” Brooklyn-based U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement Monday. His office prosecuted the case. During the trial, Watson's defense blamed any misrepresentations on others, particularly co-founder Samir Rao and former Ozy chief of staff Suzee Han. She and Rao pleaded guilty, are awaiting sentencing and testified against Watson. Watson portrayed himself Monday as a founder who put everything he had into his company, saying that he took an average salary of around $51,000 from Ozy in its final years, has triple-mortgaged his home and drives a 15-year-old car. After court, he questioned why Brooklyn-based federal prosecutors had gone after a California-based company and founder. Prosecutors declined to comment; the indictment alleged that scheming happened in the Brooklyn-based jurisdiction and elsewhere. “I do think this is an attack on Black excellence,” Watson said after noting that his sentence wasn't far from the [11-year term](https://apnews.com/article/elizabeth-holmes-theranos-prison-early-release-537ea5a5b9f9bed735a9f62a7a4dfb07) meted out to Elizabeth Holmes. She's the white former Silicon Valley CEO convicted of duping investors in the Theranos blood-testing device hoax. There's no parallel between faking blood test results and Ozy's roster of real programs and events, Watson said. Ozy, founded in 2012, was styled as a hub of news and culture for millennials with a global outlook. Watson boasted an impressive resume: degrees from Harvard University and Stanford Law School, a stint on Wall Street, on-air gigs at CNN and MSNBC, and entrepreneurial chops. Ozy Media was his second startup, coming a decade after he sold a test-prep company that he had founded while in his 20s. Mountain View, California-based Ozy produced TV shows, newsletters, podcasts, and a [music-and-ideas festival](https://apnews.com/weather-general-news-e007e3239f4c43b2b4b9ea9cab184b91). Watson hosted several of the TV programs, including the Emmy-winning “Black Women OWN the Conversation,” which appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Network. Ozy snagged big advertisers, clients and grants. But beneath the outward signs of success was an overextended company that struggled — and dissembled — to stay afloat after 2017, according to insiders' testimony. The company strained to make payroll, ran late on rent and took out pricey cash advances to pay bills, former finance vice president Janeen Poutre told jurors. Meanwhile, Ozy gave prospective investors much bigger revenue numbers than those it reported to accountants, according to testimony and documents. [On the witness stand](https://apnews.com/article/carlos-watson-ozy-media-trial-d7551599ec5dfb2f193fdf8be1fc6ead) in July, Watson said the company's cash squeezes were just a startup norm and its investors knew they were getting unaudited numbers that could change. Only one of those investors spoke at the sentencing — Beverly Watson, who stands by her brother. She told the court Monday that her biggest loss was “this important platform that elevated people and ideas that weren't being heard before.” Ozy [disintegrated in 2021](https://apnews.com/article/business-media-795759da5d8412c78143938c647eabe8), after a New York Times column disclosed the phone-call impersonation gambit and raised questions about the true size of the startup's audience.

In just a couple of years, generative AI (GenAI) has made a big impact on the way people, companies, and entire industries think about work. It’s helping [doctors and nurses](https://blog.google/products/google-cloud/generative-ai-healthcare-administration/), who spend more than a third of their work week on paperwork, free up more time to focus on patients. [Scientists](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/23/science/ai-hallucinations-science.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleSharehare) are using GenAI ideation to achieve research breakthroughs. In the field of law, where time is so valuable it’s often measured in six-minute increments, GenAI’s ability to understand and analyze documents faster than any person can is quickly becoming indispensable. Many legal teams doing text-heavy work are using innovative GenAI tools to speed their race against the ever-present clock. The next time you’re in a time crunch with your work, GenAI can also come in clutch for you. Here are three inspirational ways that GenAI is giving legal teams an unmistakable advantage in speed. Even the most sensational courtroom dramas rely on evidence. Complex matters such as criminal cases, business disputes, corporate mergers, and countless others are based on the facts found in millions of evidentiary documents. For example, litigation against the [opioid industry](https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/opioids/) has created more than four million documents. The vast majority of legal cases never make it to trial. Instead, they unfold in what feels like a game of chess, as opposing parties maneuver and negotiate back and forth. Knowledge and speed are strategic assets here, and GenAI has become an important tool that lawyers are using to achieve both. Cole, Scott & Kissane, a law firm specializing in civil litigation, has experienced the real-world impacts in resolving matters faster than before with the help of AI technology. “GenAI legal software proved helpful in reaching a settlement,” Manuel Delgado, the firm’s litigation support manager told us. “With it, we were able to quickly summarize dozens of financial reports prior to conference. Some of the insights we gained caught the plaintiff by surprise. A settlement was solidified thereafter, and our client was thrilled.” Discovery is the stage of a civil lawsuit where opposing parties gather and exchange information and evidence relevant to their respective cases. It is part of the law of civil procedure adopted by the U.S. legal system in 1938. As recently as the late 1990s, discovery was a paper-based chore. With large cases, hundreds of cardboard “bankers boxes” would be delivered to law firms; junior associates then spent hours scanning thousands of pages, searching for bits of invaluable information like a needle in a haystack. It was tedious, “[brain deadening](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/14/arts/television/better-call-saul-season-2-episode-5-recap.html)” work. Today, the problem seems harder: Millions of discovery documents may arrive at once, electronically, often at the last allowable minute. Sometimes a needle is found in the haystack. In civil litigation against Theranos cofounder [Elizabeth Holmes](https://www.wsj.com/articles/theranos-has-struggled-with-blood-tests-1444881901), prosecutors dove into evidentiary metadata to find more than 40 key documents, all potentially bolstering the case that Holmes and other company executives were well aware of the [deception](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/08/technology/trial-elizabeth-holmes-theranos.html) the company was later accused of, and of which Holmes was eventually found [criminally guilty](https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/elizabeth-holmes-sentenced-more-11-years-defrauding-theranos-investors-hundreds). But historically, legal teams have had to spend enormous amounts of time, usually measured in months and often requiring dozens of attorneys, reviewing discovery documents manually to find such needles. GenAI-powered e-discovery legal tech software has completely changed the game, allowing large volumes of electronic documents to quickly be analyzed, summarized, and assembled into a structured story. Cal Yeaman completed the review of more than 10,000 documents in minutes—something that would have taken a team of human reviewers several days. Yeaman is a project attorney at Orrick, one of the largest law firms in the country. He said at our company summit that GenAI’s coding suggestions, which help identify relevant documents in discovery, were more accurate and consistent than human review. Running the numbers, Yeaman estimated that the new AI-powered review process reduced their cost of document review by more than 50%. Law is a service business with high client expectations. Firms pride themselves on their commitment to serving client needs, an attitude that extends to the legal support teams behind the scenes. Jen Jackson, a senior analyst at the boutique employment law firm Baker Dolinko & Schwartz, had GenAI come in clutch when 10 new business requests for proposals, including over 120 pages of questions and 500 items, landed in her inbox. She also mentioned at our summit that instead of handing the task off to a junior attorney, wasting time and billable hours, she uploaded the documents to a GenAI tool that functions as a “smart intern” and got a condensed two-page summary of the tasks in minutes. Do you need to cut through the chaos? Find a needle in a haystack? Get the lay of the land, fast? With a little imagination, GenAI can be an invaluable tool the next time you’re in a time crunch. _AJ Shankar is CEO of Everlaw._

 蔡崇信确认阿里巴巴与苹果合作；字节被判赔 8000 万！抖音副总回应；文心一言自 4 月 1 日全面免费开放 深度搜索功能上线  中国影史首部百亿元票房影片诞生 --------------- 2 月 13 日消息，据猫眼专业版数据，电影《哪吒之魔童闹海》全球票房（含预售及海外）突破 100 亿，成为中国影史首部票房破 100 亿电影！据猫眼专业版预测票房数据显示，最新预测总票房超 160 亿，预计将进入全球票房榜前五。（来源：界面新闻）   蔡崇信确认阿里巴巴与苹果合作 -------------- 2 月 13 日，在阿联酋迪拜举办的 World Governments Summit 2025 峰会上，阿里巴巴联合创始人、董事局主席蔡崇信回应阿里与苹果合作传闻，他表示，苹果在中国需要一个本地化的合作伙伴，为他们的手机服务。苹果一直非常挑剔，他们与中国的多家公司进行了交谈。最终，他们选择与我们做生意。我们非常幸运，也非常荣幸能够与苹果这样的伟大公司做生意。（来源：第一财经日报）  马斯克方：若 OpenAI 维持非营利，将撤回 974 亿美元收购要约 ----------------------------------- 2 月 13 日消息，马斯克的律师当地时间 12 日提交法庭文件称，若 OpenAI 放弃成为营利性实体，马斯克方将撤回对 OpenAI 的 974 亿美元收购要约 ... 文件称，马斯克牵头财团的「认真报价」旨在进一步推进 OpenAI 作为慈善机构的使命

A US court upheld the conviction of the [Theranos](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/theranos) founder [Elizabeth Holmes](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/elizabeth-holmes) for defrauding investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars while operating her failed blood-testing startup, once valued at $9bn, rejecting her multi-year appeal. The court also upheld the conviction of Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, once Holmes’s romantic partner and president of Theranos. A three-judge panel for the 9th US circuit court of appeals in [San Francisco](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/san-francisco) rejected claims of legal errors at their separate trials held in 2022. Holmes, 41, who started Theranos as a college student and became its public face, was indicted alongside Balwani in 2018. The two were tried separately and [sentenced in 2022](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/18/elizabeth-holmes-theranos-trial-sentencing) to 11 years and three months, and 12 years and 11 months, respectively. Holmes was ordered to pay $452m in restitution to investors, but a judge [placed the penalty on hold](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/07/elizabeth-holmes-prison-sentence) due to her limited financial resources. Holmes’s sentence [has been reduced by more than two years](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/10/elizabeth-holmes-11-year-prison-sentence-shortened-by-two-years) for good behavior while incarcerated, and she is expected to be released in 2032, having served a nine-year sentence. [skip past newsletter promotion](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/feb/24/elizabeth-holmes-theranos-conviction#EmailSignup-skip-link-4) Sign up to TechScape A weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives **Privacy Notice:** Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our [Privacy Policy](https://www.theguardian.com/help/privacy-policy). We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) and [Terms of Service](https://policies.google.com/terms) apply. after newsletter promotion Holmes’s lawyers, who filed the appeal in April 2023, alleged that her trial had featured improper procedures and evidence. A US attorney disagreed and in an initial hearing on the [appeal in 2024](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/11/elizabeth-holmes-theranos-appeal-fraud-conviction), said that “it was not really contested that the device did not work,” referring to Theranos’s error-prone Edison blood-testing machine. Holmes claimed that the Edison could perform a wide swath of medical tests with a single drop of a patient’s blood, which would have represented a significant advance in biotechnology. Her invention never lived up to her promises. In advance of the ruling on her appeal, Holmes appeared on the cover of [People](https://people.com/elizabeth-holmes-breaks-her-silence-in-first-interview-from-prison-it-s-been-hell-and-torture-exclusive-8789737) magazine earlier this month for her first interview since being locked up. She described federal prison as “hell and torture” and said she was “not the same person I was back then”. “The people I love the most have to walk away as I stand here, a prisoner, and my reality sinks in,” she said of her two young children and her husband.

[WMT\-0.60%](https://qz.com/quote/WMT)[NWSA+0.09%](https://qz.com/quote/NWSA)[DIS+2.52%](https://qz.com/quote/DIS)[WBD+3.94%](https://qz.com/quote/WBD) A three-judge panel in San Francisco denied the conviction appeal of Elizabeth Holmes on Monday, the founder of the blood-testing company Theranos. Holmes was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2022 for defrauding investors by misleading them about the capabilities of her company’s technology. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals [upheld](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca9.341504/gov.uscourts.ca9.341504.9034460859.1.pdf) the fraud convictions and sentences of Holmes and her former boyfriend, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, along with a $452 million restitution order. Balwani, who helped run Theranos, was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison. Holmes founded Theranos in 2003, when she was 19 years old, with the aim of revolutionizing blood testing. She claimed that Theranos had developed a device that could run dozens of tests on blood drawn from a single pinprick. The company raised [$700 million from big-name investors,](https://qz.com/1379288/elizabeth-holmess-theranos-is-shutting-down) including former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and the heirs of Walmart ([WMT\-0.60%](https://qz.com/quote/WMT)) founder Sam Walton. The startup was once valued at $9 billion. However, an exposé by Wall Street Journal ([NWSA+0.09%](https://qz.com/quote/NWSA)) reporter John Carreyrou revealed that Theranos’ blood tests failed to meet the company’s claims. Attorneys for Holmes and Balwani argued that legal errors regarding witness testimonies and evidence presented in court tainted their separate trials. For example, Holmes’ attorneys argued that Judge Edward Davila, who presided over Holmes’ original trial, [unfairly allowed](https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/06/11/elizabeth-holmes-appears-to-gain-ground-as-her-appeal-is-heard/) former Theranos scientist Kingshuk Das to give expert testimony before the jury about his opinions on Theranos’ technology. However, the three-judge appeals panel rejected those claims, ruling that any errors were “harmless” and that the parties’ arguments failed to prove a violation. Holmes’s story, which became [a cautionary tale](https://qz.com/elizabeth-holmes-sentencing-theranos-founders-myth-1849795152) about blind trust in charismatic Silicon Valley founders, became [a pop culture sensation](https://qz.com/2109336/how-elizabeth-holmes-became-a-pop-culture-phenomenon), inspiring [a best-selling book](https://qz.com/quartzy/1510531/best-books-we-read-in-2018) by Carreyrou, documentaries from [ABC and HBO](https://qz.com/quartzy/1575581/hbos-theranos-documentary-explores-elizabeth-holmes-cult-of-personality) exploring her rise and fall, and a Hulu ([DIS+2.52%](https://qz.com/quote/DIS)) series that dramatized it. _\- Melvin Beckman contributed to this report._

Check out **Fastly, a modern CDN for effortless scale.** **[Try Fastly Free Now](https://www.fastly.com/signup?utm_campaign=GLOBAL_Display-Website-Visits_Sourceforge-CDN_EN_Iron-Horse_Lead-Create_Sourceforge-Media&utm_content=EN_Image_300x32_Modern-CDN_Brand_Black_Fastly-User-Sign-Up&utm_source=sourceforge&utm_medium=display)** × 176421437 story [](//science.slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=biotech) Posted by [BeauHD](https://www.linkedin.com/in/beauhd/) on Monday February 24, 2025 @07:20PM from the legal-setbacks dept. "Elizabeth Holmes' fraud conviction has been [upheld by a federal appellate panel](https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/theranos-elizabeth-holmes-sentence-upheld-rcna193496)," writes Slashdot reader [ClickOnThis](/~ClickOnThis). MSNBC reports: _A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday affirmed the convictions, sentences and nine-figure restitution [ordered](https://science.slashdot.org/story/22/11/18/2222208/former-theranos-ceo-elizabeth-holmes-sentenced-to-more-than-11-years-in-prison) against both Holmes and Theranos president, Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani. \[...\] Theranos was supposedly going to revolutionize medical laboratory testing with the ability to run fast, accurate and affordable tests with just a drop of blood from a finger prick. "But the vision sold by Holmes and Balwani was nothing more than a mirage," 9th Circuit Judge Jacqueline H. Nguyen [wrote](https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2025/02/24/22-10312.pdf) (PDF) for the panel, adding that the "grandiose achievements touted by Holmes and Balwani were half-truths and outright lies." Holmes was convicted of crimes related to fraud against investors while the jury acquitted her or hung on other counts. Balwani was convicted on all counts at his trial. The federal panel rejected a slew of arguments from both defendants, including that their trials featured improper testimony from Theranos employees. While the ruling is a major setback for the defendants, they can further appeal to a fuller panel of 9th Circuit judges and the Supreme Court, which generally has broad discretion over whether to accept cases for review. _

Theranos founder and former chief executive Elizabeth Holmes has lost an appeal against her conviction for defrauding investors in her blood-testing company. Holmes was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison. In her appeal, she challenged trial evidence and testimony and argued that statements by her ex-business and romantic partner Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani about his level of responsibility for Theranos' financial model should have been included. He was jailed for more than 12 years. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the arguments. Judge Jacqueline H Nguyen wrote that Theranos's claim of being able to run blood tests with a drop from a finger prick instead of a needle in a vein was "nothing more than a mirage". "The grandiose achievements touted by Holmes and Balwani were half-truths and outright lies," Nguyen wrote in the opinion on behalf of a three-judge panel published on Monday. Holmes was convicted in 2022 of conspiracy and multiple charges of wire fraud for misleading investors over the company's financial health and the effectiveness of its technology. Balwani, who was tried separately and [additionally convicted of defrauding patients](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-61902378) in 2022, also lost his appeal. In the appeal, both challenged a court order to pay $452m (£358m) in restitution to victims, which the court upheld. In Holmes's appeal, she argued that statements from Balwani where he said he "owned" the company's financial model should have been included in the trial. The appeal also argued that former Theranos employees offered improper expert testimony and a government inspection report should not have been included as evidence - all arguments the court dismissed. Silicon Valley start-up Theranos was once valued at $9bn (£7bn). But in late 2015, news reporting revealed internal struggles at the company and exposed the limitations of its technology. After a two-and-a-half-year investigation, a grand jury indicted Holmes and Balwani, leading to their convictions and sentencings. Holmes entered prison in Texas in 2023.

[AMZN\-1.15%](https://qz.com/quote/AMZN)[CVS+1.79%](https://qz.com/quote/CVS)[SBUX+0.69%](https://qz.com/quote/SBUX)[WMT\-3.16%](https://qz.com/quote/WMT) Walgreens, once a cornerstone of American retail, has faced a dramatic fall from grace. Earlier this week, the pharmacy giant was [sold](https://investor.walgreensbootsalliance.com/news-releases/news-release-details/walgreens-boots-alliance-enters-definitive-agreement-be-acquired) to private-equity firm Sycamore Partners for just $10 billion – a staggering decline from its [nearly $100 billion](https://companiesmarketcap.com/walgreens-boots-alliance/marketcap/) valuation in 2015. The deal marks the culmination of a decade-long struggle for the Chicago-based chain, [taking it off of the stock market](https://qz.com/amazon-walgreens-uber-jetblue-dow-jones-industrial-aver-1851272880?_gl=1*1mo72cb*_ga*MTI5NTcwNDc1OS4xNzQxMTA3MzA5*_ga_V4QNJTT5L0*MTc0MTM1OTUxMS44LjEuMTc0MTM2MzU4My42MC4wLjA.) after just shy of 100 years. “Meaningful value creation will take time, focus, and change that is better managed as a private company,” said CEO Tim Wentworth, pointing to Sycamore’s track record of retail turnarounds as a potential lifeline. Walgreens’ woes are extensive. As as consumers increasingly turned to e-commerce giants like [Amazon](https://qz.com/amazon-pharmacy-20-new-cities-expansion-retail-1851669011) for everyday essentials, Walgreens struggled to [keep pace](https://qz.com/amazon-walmart-target-prices-black-friday-cyber-monday-1851698904). Meanwhile, rivals like [CVS](https://qz.com/cvs-unlock-items-walmart-target-walgreens-retail-theft-1851749124) merged with health insurers, gaining control of the lucrative reimbursement market. Caught on a tightrope, Walgreens failed to [find its balance](https://qz.com/rite-aid-zombie-stores-bankruptcy-closures-opioid-crisi-1851727632). In Oct. 2024, the company announced plans to [close 1,200 stores](https://qz.com/walgreens-to-close-1-200-stores-as-losses-mount-1851672659?_gl=1*1wu29hy*_ga*MTI5NTcwNDc1OS4xNzQxMTA3MzA5*_ga_V4QNJTT5L0*MTc0MTM1OTUxMS44LjEuMTc0MTM2MjgzMy42MC4wLjA.) in an effort to stem its financial losses. The company’s difficulties were worsened by a series of costly missteps in tech and healthcare. Walgreens [invested $140 million](https://vaultinum.com/blog/theranos-a-reminder-of-the-importance-of-technical-due-diligence) in Theranos, a blood-testing startup that [promised](https://qz.com/elizabeth-holmes-appeal-theranos-denied-1851766198) to revolutionize diagnostics. The partnership aimed to place Theranos clinics in Walgreens stores, but the deal fell apart after the startup’s devices were found to [misdiagnose](https://www.integrityline.com/expertise/blog/elizabeth-holmes-theranos/) patients, leading to its [collapse](https://qz.com/elizabeth-holmes-appeal-1851533823). Further complicating the company’s strategy, Walgreens poured [$6.2 billion](https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/walgreens-considers-villagemd-full-sale/723682/) into VillageMD, a network of primary-care clinics, under the leadership of [former CEO Rosalind Brewer](https://www.inc.com/fran-velasquez/walgreens-boots-alliance-rosalind-brewer-leaders-strategy-toolkit.html), previously a Starbucks ([SBUX+0.69%](https://qz.com/quote/SBUX)), Sam’s Club ([WMT\-3.16%](https://qz.com/quote/WMT)), and Walmart executive. Walgreens burned through more cash when it spent [$9 billion](https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/walgreens-backed-village-md-acquire-summit-health-citymd-89b) to acquire urgent-care centers, including CityMD, in 2022. These moves only deepened the company’s debt without addressing core challenges in its pharmacy business. Tech innovations also turned into costly headaches. In a high-profile failure, Walgreens spent [$200 million](https://qz.com/walgreens-digital-doors-200-million-mess-glitch-retail-1851741970?_gl=1*1a5y04g*_ga*MTI5NTcwNDc1OS4xNzQxMTA3MzA5*_ga_V4QNJTT5L0*MTc0MTM1OTUxMS44LjEuMTc0MTM2NDAwMS42MC4wLjA.) attempting to modernize stores by replacing traditional refrigerator doors with digital screens. The experiment flopped, signaling a broader failure to innovate effectively. As [cash flow lagged](https://qz.com/walgreens-says-locking-up-products-bad-for-business-1851739978), [debt mounted](https://qz.com/walgreens-store-closures-2024-moody-retail-1851578257), and [shares](https://qz.com/walgreens-stock-pops-20-percent-sycamore-partners-sale-1851717810) plummeted, the company’s future grew increasingly [uncertain](https://qz.com/walgreens-staff-is-paying-the-price-for-the-companys-fi-1850988884). In January, Walgreens [suspended](https://apnews.com/article/walgreens-suspends-dividend-stock-plunge-c1d2d0c151864821ddf04dec954039e7) its 91-year-old quarterly dividend to conserve cash amid rising debt and legal troubles. That same month, the U.S. Justice Department sued the company over millions of questionable opioid prescriptions. In Sept. 2024, Walgreens agreed to pay [$106 million](https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/walgreens-agrees-pay-1068m-resolve-allegations-it-billed-government-prescriptions-never) to settle false payment claims. Enter Sycamore Partners, a private-equity firm based in New York that’s known for its work with retail and consumer brands such as [Loft and Ann Taylor](https://chainstoreage.com/sycamore-partners-unites-ann-taylor-loft-and-talbots-new-holding-company). Sycamore is expected to either [sell off](https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/walgreens-private-equity-sale-rise-fall-42ac5db6) parts of Walgreens, including its Boots pharmacies in the U.K., or work with partners to revive the business. The deal could help refocus Walgreens’ core U.S. retail pharmacy operations while shedding less-profitable assets. The downfall of Walgreens is [emblematic](https://qz.com/best-buy-amazon-walmart-third-party-sellers-trump-tarif-1851768083) of the challenges facing the U.S. healthcare sector. As [competition](https://qz.com/walmart-prescription-delivery-amazon-cvs-walgreens-1851678298?_gl=1*1gn8zy3*_ga*MTI5NTcwNDc1OS4xNzQxMTA3MzA5*_ga_V4QNJTT5L0*MTc0MTM1OTUxMS44LjEuMTc0MTM2NDQyOS42MC4wLjA.) from [Amazon](https://qz.com/amazon-delivery-speed-9-billion-items-physical-store-st-1851754851), [Walmart](https://qz.com/walmart-trump-tariffs-china-suppliers-consumer-trade-wa-1851768038), and CVS ([CVS+1.79%](https://qz.com/quote/CVS)) [intensifies](https://qz.com/amazon-telehealth-hims-ro-1851698700), even once-dominant pharmacy chains are [struggling to stay relevant](https://qz.com/rite-aid-zombie-stores-bankruptcy-closures-opioid-crisi-1851727632). The days when Walgreens ruled the wallets of American consumers are long gone.

For [Amanda Seyfried](https://www.nytimes.com/spotlight/amanda-seyfried), the first day on set for “Long Bright River,” a limited series for Peacock, was awful. She stood under the lights in a mock-up of a police morgue, in her patrol cop uniform, unsure how to move or speak. “Every first day of work, I never know what the \[expletive\] I’m doing,” she told me later. Seyfried overprepares for most roles. She researches; she memorizes; she asks question after question. But then suddenly she’s on a soundstage somewhere, with the lights blazing and the cameras pointed at her face, and the terror rushes in. If she has an acting process, she said, “it’s all based on the fear that I’m not going to be good enough.” Seyfried, 39, was speaking on an icy February morning. We’d met for a late breakfast at a cafe on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, near where Seyfried keeps an apartment. (She and her husband, the actor Thomas Sadoski, and their two children, spend most of their time [on a farm upstate](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/29/movies/amanda-seyfried-mank.html).) She was in town to shoot a Paul Feig movie, “The Housemaid,” and to promote [“Long Bright River,”](https://www.peacocktv.com/stream-tv/long-bright-river) a moody eight-episode suspense series that premieres on March 13. She had recently wrapped [“Ann Lee,”](https://carteblanchefilms.com/ann-lee/) a historical musical by Mona Fastvold. Image Over more than two decades as an actor, Amanda Seyfried has moved from comedy and romance to more complex roles. Credit...Dana Scruggs for The New York Times Does this sound like a lot? It was. “I think I’m falling apart,” Seyfried said as she looked at the menu. She had recently injured her back on “The Housemaid” and was taking muscle relaxants. “I’m fine now,” she said. “I mean, I’m not. I’m struggling, but I’m walking.” Seyfried has been in the business for more than two decades, and has moved, gradually, from comedy ([“Mean Girls”](https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/30/movies/film-review-tribal-rites-of-teenage-girls-who-rule-by-terror.html)) and romance [(“Mamma Mia”](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/arts/18iht-fmreview18.1.14565878.html)) to more complex roles. Her performance as the actress Marion Davies in the Netflix film [“Mank”](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/03/movies/mank-review.html) earned her an Oscar nomination, and she won an Emmy for [her portrayal](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/02/arts/television/the-dropout-elizabeth-holmes.html) of the [convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/technology/elizabeth-holmes-theranos.html) in the Hulu mini-series, [“The Dropout.”](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/12/arts/television/amanda-seyfried-the-dropout.html) With those roles and those accolades secure, she has finally been recognized as a gifted dramatic actress. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and [log into](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F03%2F11%2Farts%2Ftelevision%2Flong-bright-river-amanda-seyfried.html&asset=opttrunc) your Times account, or [subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F03%2F11%2Farts%2Ftelevision%2Flong-bright-river-amanda-seyfried.html) for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F03%2F11%2Farts%2Ftelevision%2Flong-bright-river-amanda-seyfried.html&asset=opttrunc). Want all of The Times? [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F03%2F11%2Farts%2Ftelevision%2Flong-bright-river-amanda-seyfried.html).