Disgraced biotech mogul Elizabeth Holmes is to begin serving prison time this month after a judge denied her request to remain free while appealing her fraud conviction.
The 39-year-old Theranos founder was convicted of fraud for deceiving investors with her Silicon Valley start-up and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. She is expected to turn herself in to federal authorities on April 27.
Shortly after her conviction in January, Holmes reportedly bought a one-way ticket to Mexico in an alleged effort to flee the country.
Prosecutors then filed a motion telling the court that she should go to prison right away because she is a flight risk and made “an attempt to flee the country.”
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“The government became aware on January 23, 2022, that Defendant Holmes booked an international flight to Mexico departing on January 26, 2022, without a scheduled return trip,” prosecutors allege in the filing, per multiple reports. “Only after the government raised this unauthorized flight with defense counsel was the trip canceled.”
In a ruling Monday night, US District Court Judge Edward Davila denied a motion by Holmes, wroting that it is unlikely her appeal will succeed.
“The court does not find that she has raised a substantial question of law or fact that is likely to result in reversal or an order for a new trial of all counts,” wrote Davila, who presided over Holmes’s trial.
Holmes first rose to prominence in 2014 as the founder and CEO of Theranos, which duped investors out of millions by falsely purporting that its technology could run hundreds of medical tests using just a few drops of blood.
