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Elizabeth Holmes is going to prison – with a $500M bill

theregister.com

21–30 of 112 posts

Re: Elizabeth Holmes is going to prison – with a $500M bill

#21

Will she still be wealthy?

No. The court has kindly ordered to pay half billion to her billionaire investors. Apparently they are going in prison ONLY because they screwed investors. I truly don't understand this part. These investors agreed to give money based on risk/reward. They were on the board and happily paddled along. They literally didn't cared even when issues were brought to them. They thought it is just like WeWork/Uber founder doing bullshit for exponential growth. Only when press released news and they thought they might get some mud, they pressed eject button.

No one should be going to prison because of these billionaire investors.

Re: Elizabeth Holmes is going to prison – with a $500M bill

#23

>> Charges for which Holmes was convicted in January. These included three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Naive question: Why do they call this wire fraud? Where is the wire in this fraud?

I am not a lawyer but I believe if the fraud involves any kind of electronic communications, like sending a term sheet to an investor via email, then it can be charged as wire fraud.

Re: Elizabeth Holmes is going to prison – with a $500M bill

#24

>> Charges for which Holmes was convicted in January. These included three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Naive question: Why do they call this wire fraud? Where is the wire in this fraud?

As opposed to mail fraud -- basically any kind of fraud committed via electronic communication. At the time they would have been thinking of telegrams and phones, but the statute covers fraudulent materials "transmitted by means of wire, radio, or television communication", so that covers the Internet as well.

Re: Elizabeth Holmes is going to prison – with a $500M bill

#25

Will she still be wealthy?

Her wealth was all on paper, that paper being equity in Theranos. By the time she was indicted her net worth was listed as zero.

In that case will this restitution likely never be paid?

Re: Elizabeth Holmes is going to prison – with a $500M bill

#27

Does anyone have a clear and simple answer on why she got two years less than Sunny Balwani?

Balwani's story is quite amazing. The dude won startup lottery and made enough money that he wouldn't have to worry rest of the life. He had a mansions, sports cars and lived his life happily. One day this young women walks in his life and wants help with her startup. The dude throws away everything to make her startup success, burns midnight oil and torches ethics. He is much older and thinks he is in love. Only lat…

You are throwing the baby out with the bathwater there.

Re: Elizabeth Holmes is going to prison – with a $500M bill

#28

Will she still be wealthy?

No. The court has kindly ordered to pay half billion to her billionaire investors. Apparently they are going in prison ONLY because they screwed investors. I truly don't understand this part. These investors agreed to give money based on risk/reward. They were on the board and happily paddled along. They literally didn't cared even when issues were brought to them. They thought it is just like WeWork/Uber founder doi…

Outright fraud is a very different thing in all contracts because there’s no meeting of the minds by definition. In fact, the incentives are typically the other way in private capital markets. Most investors are extremely wary of getting into lawsuits with companies they invest in even if they’re getting screwed / there’s fraud because it reflects poorly on you as an investor. Often better to just take the loss.

No one is going to prison because of billionaire investors. They’re going to prison because of fraud. Now maybe the billionaire investors managed to get a DA to take on the case in the first place and that’s a problem, but not because she shouldn’t be going to prison.

Re: Elizabeth Holmes is going to prison – with a $500M bill

#29

[flagged]

Instead of dropping conspiracies one should ask for proof. The fact you couldn't name a single male CEO who had a similar level of Fraud should be proof enough the court system treated this fairly-ish compared to past levels of fraud. This wasn't just product fraud. It wasn't just money lost. Non-investors had their lives ruined from wrong medical advice being given. People died as a result. I think the bhopal disast…

> This wasn't just product fraud. It wasn't just money lost. Non-investors had their lives ruined from wrong medical advice being given. People died as a result.

Th court disagrees with you.

U.S. v. Holmes, et al. ended in January 2022 when Holmes was convicted of defrauding investors, and acquitted of defrauding patients.

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