Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Friday January 14 2022, @10:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the to-be-determined dept.

Holmes to face maximum of 80 years in prison when she’s sentenced in September:

While she is likely to receive prison time for defrauding investors, she will be able to spend the next eight and a half months out on bail. She faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each of the four counts she was convicted of, though it’s unlikely that she’ll be sentenced to all 80 years.

Holmes has been out on bail since June 2018, when she and alleged co-conspirator Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani were charged. Both were released after posting $500,000 bonds and surrendering their passports. Now that Holmes has been convicted and is awaiting sentencing, her bond will have to be secured by property. Their trials have been repeatedly pushed back, first because of the COVID pandemic and then later because Holmes gave birth.

Part of the reason Holmes’ sentencing has been postponed is because the government still has to prosecute its case against Balwani.

Previously:
2022/01/04 - Elizabeth Holmes Found Guilty on 4 of 11 Charges
2020/09/13 - Judge in Theranos Fraud Case Orders 14-Hour Psychological Test for Holmes
2019/07/01 - Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes to Face Trial Next Year on Fraud Charges
2018/09/06 - Theranos to Dissolve in a Pool of Blood
2018/06/17 - Elizabeth Holmes Steps Down as Theranos CEO as DoJ Levels Charges
2018/03/15 - Blood Unicorn Fairy Tale: Theranos Founder Charged With Fraud
2017/12/24 - Theranos Given Indirect Lifeline From Softbank
2016/10/06 - Theranos Lays Off 340, Closes Labs and "Wellness Centers"
2016/08/03 - Theranos Introduces New Product to Distract from Scandal


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)
  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 14 2022, @10:16PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 14 2022, @10:16PM (#1212786)

    Or you too, will get a life sentence for paper crime

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @03:58PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @03:58PM (#1213148)

      I don't understand this comment. Are you suggesting that she should get a slap-on-the-wrist instead?

      I thought the typical complaint was "embezzle/wage-theft $500 million and get a $1 million fine, steal a $2 stick of gum and get sent to prison for 2 years." Shouldn't her getting a large prison sentence be what people want to have happen?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @06:45PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @06:45PM (#1213191)

        Stealing from a rich man is not a crime, it's karma

    • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday January 17 2022, @07:01PM

      by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Monday January 17 2022, @07:01PM (#1213444) Homepage Journal

      If I steal a million ten dollar bills, it's just a paper crime, isn't it?

      Did you know there is or was a man imprisoned for life in California under their three strikes law for stealing a candy bar? I think her attempt to steal millions of dollars warrants far more jail time than stealing a candy bar. She should have been given an even longer sentence than 88 years, she'll probably be paroled in ten.

      --
      mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
  • (Score: 3, Troll) by Barenflimski on Friday January 14 2022, @10:56PM (23 children)

    by Barenflimski (6836) on Friday January 14 2022, @10:56PM (#1212791)

    Did anyone but hedge funds lose their pants on this? Were there any regular Joes that lost everything here?

    80 years for over exaggerating your product?

    I must have missed something here.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 14 2022, @11:23PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 14 2022, @11:23PM (#1212796)

      Maybe the hedge funds and/or those that profit from them are trying to ensure an example is made...

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 14 2022, @11:55PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 14 2022, @11:55PM (#1212802)

      Caught engaging in braggadocio without the required phallic equipment.

      • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @06:32PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @06:32PM (#1212968)

        How is this insightful? It would have been just as much a crime if it had been a man as a woman. And whatever the sentence she does get, it's probably not going to be as long as what a man would have gotten and the prison she goes to is probably going to be nicer.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @10:47AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @10:47AM (#1213095)

        Well we can't sentence a defenseless girl to prison. Maybe she could get married and bake some cookies, and leave outside work to the mean, rough boys.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @12:58PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @12:58PM (#1213116)

        Oh please. Shouldn't you feminists be happy she's being punished for her scam just like any man would in her place? Or do you honestly believe in that crazy head of yours everyone was under the impression she had a penis when she was everyone's darling? Besides, women tend to get lighter sentences anyway, she'll be out in no time under parole.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by martyb on Saturday January 15 2022, @01:26AM (12 children)

      by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Saturday January 15 2022, @01:26AM (#1212819) Journal

      Did anyone but hedge funds lose their pants on this? Were there any regular Joes that lost everything here?

      See Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] and note that Walgreens got suckered in, among others. I don't know about hedge funds per se, but if an "average Joe" has a 401-K retirement fund, where do you think the fund invests the money? That "average Joe" was a part owner of Theranos.

      --
      Wit is intellect, dancing.
      • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @08:30AM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @08:30AM (#1212885)

        Your random person off the street isn't even allowed to invest in hedge funds directly or even indirectly. Additionally, their managed 401-Ks (and IRAs) cannot invest in startups and this sort of private equity without losing their protection unless they jump through all sorts of hoops, which means that they don't because the red tape isn't worth it. None of the people getting burned by this are what people would consider "average Joes."

        • (Score: 2) by martyb on Sunday January 16 2022, @02:06AM (2 children)

          by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Sunday January 16 2022, @02:06AM (#1213055) Journal

          See my other commet [soylentnews.org].

          --
          Wit is intellect, dancing.
          • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @08:17AM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @08:17AM (#1213086)

            You know I had a thought. About how long ago did you work in financial services? Because if it were in the neighborhood of 30 to maybe 20 years ago, your experience might line up with what you thought was going on. Defined-benefit plans have no restrictions imposed by the beneficiary class (because the money being invested isn't theirs yet, it is the plan's). There were also slightly different rules for how plans could invest if it had mixed funds.

            • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @10:50AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @10:50AM (#1213096)

              Or maybe he's a dipshit.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Saturday January 15 2022, @10:36PM (6 children)

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Saturday January 15 2022, @10:36PM (#1213018) Journal

        It has been a while since I worked in hedge funds, but when I did we did handle investments from corporate retirement funds. Most of those funds have strict limits on how much they can invest in high risk vehicles like hedge funds. 10% of their investments was the limit then. Some of those retirement funds imposed further limits on the hedge funds like they weren't allowed to hold REITs or junk bonds or that kind of thing.

        The company I worked for was a fiduciary that tracked the hedge fund portfolios on behalf of the retirement funds. If the hedge funds started to go off strategy and bought instruments they weren't supposed to, I picked up the phone to the managers and warned them to cut it out or we'd pull out the billions the retirement funds had put in. Hedge funds typically leverage many times the actual dollars they get, such that if you put in a billion they might leverage that up to $50 billion. So threatening to pull out your $1 billion investment meant they had to dump $50 billion in their positions, which makes for a reasonably potent stick to beat them with.

        In a low oversight environment, in which the SEC doesn't police you, many hedge funds use their leverage positions to leverage even higher, such that that 50-to-1 leverage they had before turns into a 200-to-1. That's $200 billion worth of investments riding on $1 billion in cash. If those positions go south, it's a fuck ton of margin calls to cover.

        If the average guy on the street knew how precarious the financial system is because of that sort of thing, his head would explode.

        --
        Washington DC delenda est.
        • (Score: 2) by Barenflimski on Saturday January 15 2022, @10:57PM (1 child)

          by Barenflimski (6836) on Saturday January 15 2022, @10:57PM (#1213027)

          You kinda low key blew my mind here already. Whatever that bird is that sticks its head in the sand, may have something there.

          • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Sunday January 16 2022, @08:08PM

            by Phoenix666 (552) on Sunday January 16 2022, @08:08PM (#1213232) Journal

            It might not be a kindness to mention, but it's even worse than that. As publicly traded instruments, mutual funds have to disclose what they're doing. If you invest in one, you can demand to know everything they've invested in and they have to show you. So, if the mutual funds report they made 15% returns last quarter, you can double check that.

            Hedge funds are "private investment clubs," so they don't have to tell you anything they don't want to. When you give them money, you are casting it into an informational black hole. They can tell you they're making 100% returns to entice you to fork over $10 billion, but there's no way to check if they actually are. All you can do is pull your money out. If it's been a year you're expecting to have doubled your money. But if they haven't made those kind of returns then they grab another investor's principal to give to you to make it appear as if you have doubled your money. The idea is then you run off, ecstatic, to the New York Racquet Club to brag to all of your wealthy buddies about how well your hedge fund did and tell them to invest, too.

            In other words, they're ponzi schemes for the wealthy. Bernie Madoff, whom you may have heard of, did exactly what I described with his hedge fund. But he made his personal money from the management fees he charged his investors, and the criminal penalties and fines are almost never as big as the money they scrape off the top, so even if they spend a couple years in a country club jail they still come out as incredibly wealthy on the other side. So there's no financial disincentive to running a ponzi scheme nee hedge fund. The worst that happens to you is that Brad and Tiffany who lost money in your fund no longer want you in their social set in the Hamptons.

            But don't worry, if their funds implode and pull down the whole system, the government will bail them out using tax dollars that you earned by slinging websites for the Man. Privatize the profits, socialize the losses.

            Yes, that is the ugly truth at the heart of the global system.

            --
            Washington DC delenda est.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @01:20AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @01:20AM (#1213044)

          If the average guy on the street knew how precarious the financial system is because of that sort of thing, his head would explode.

          I vaguely remember this coming up about 15 years ago. Probably just some academic discussions though, nothing of practical importance.

        • (Score: 2) by martyb on Sunday January 16 2022, @01:27AM (2 children)

          by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Sunday January 16 2022, @01:27AM (#1213047) Journal

          I twice worked at financial services firms, but that was many, many moons ago. You obviously have more hands-one experience than I. Thanks for the elucidation; I bow to your experience and knowledge. Thanks for the explanation... please accept my gladly-given upmod!

          --
          Wit is intellect, dancing.
          • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Sunday January 16 2022, @07:51PM (1 child)

            by Phoenix666 (552) on Sunday January 16 2022, @07:51PM (#1213222) Journal

            Thanks! It was 20 years ago, though, so things may have changed quite a bit. :-)

            --
            Washington DC delenda est.
            • (Score: 2) by martyb on Monday January 17 2022, @07:34PM

              by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Monday January 17 2022, @07:34PM (#1213453) Journal

              Let's just say it was before or just when the Pentium came out ;)

              --
              Wit is intellect, dancing.
      • (Score: 1, Redundant) by martyb on Sunday January 16 2022, @01:38AM

        by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Sunday January 16 2022, @01:38AM (#1213051) Journal

        A comment below [soylentnews.org] has a much better explanation than mine. Please downmod this as "-1 Overrated".

        --
        Wit is intellect, dancing.
    • (Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Saturday January 15 2022, @02:34PM (4 children)

      by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Saturday January 15 2022, @02:34PM (#1212920)

      Did anyone but hedge funds lose their pants on this? Were there any regular Joes that lost everything here?

      My understanding is that quite a few Walgreens customers who had their blood genuinely tested by Theranos machines got inaccurate results, upon which important, potentially life-changing medical decisions were based.

      So yeah, average Joes did get hurt. Possibly not very many, but it did happen. It's not just greedy investors - for whom I have zero sympathy.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @04:39PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @04:39PM (#1212945)

        She was found not guilty for those charges so what you are saying is legally bullshit.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Saturday January 15 2022, @05:08PM (1 child)

          by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Saturday January 15 2022, @05:08PM (#1212949)

          Just because she herself was found not guilty doesn't mean it didn't happen, just that she was found not to he responsible for it.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @10:55AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @10:55AM (#1213098)

            Suckers who take medical tests know what they're getting into. If they choose to believe the result, that's on them. I however use horse viagra for my needs.

      • (Score: 2) by Barenflimski on Sunday January 16 2022, @09:58PM

        by Barenflimski (6836) on Sunday January 16 2022, @09:58PM (#1213261)

        Interesting. I had no idea they had been doing anything but raising money.

        Sorry to hear about your friends. I hope they can reverse whatever they did based on a bad test.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Friday January 14 2022, @11:07PM (6 children)

    by looorg (578) on Friday January 14 2022, @11:07PM (#1212794)

    Taking bets on that while on bail she'll do a runner to a non-extradition country? I would if I was facing 80 years.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by vux984 on Saturday January 15 2022, @12:43AM (5 children)

      by vux984 (5045) on Saturday January 15 2022, @12:43AM (#1212812)

      That's maximum sentence possible... aka click bait. I'd be pretty surprised if she gets more than 15, and likely will be up for parole within 5.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @01:28AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @01:28AM (#1212820)

        If she gets too much, it will be clear grounds for appeal, probably 5-8 years, but she'll walk in about 3 on good "behavior".

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @02:11PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @02:11PM (#1212915)

        Even after 5 years she'll be past her prime. She'll already looking a bit worse for wear.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @11:02AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @11:02AM (#1213101)

          And you'll still be hand cranking your purple-headed yogurt pistol to a picture of her for the rest of your pathetic, sad life wondering how humans actually meet eachother to have sex.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @03:00PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @03:00PM (#1212925)

        If she recently gave birth, I'll be surprised if she gets more than one year, or any at all.

      • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Saturday January 15 2022, @07:08PM

        by Beryllium Sphere (r) (5062) on Saturday January 15 2022, @07:08PM (#1212978)

        No parole in federal.

        But you're right that "up to" is a red flag in a headline. A former US attorney at the Popehat blog who made a living knowing the sentencing guidelines thinks 20 years is plausible. With good behavior, 15% off.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @12:18AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @12:18AM (#1212805)

    In the movie they're making about the case
    https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/15/22838297/hulu-amanda-seyfried-elizabeth-holmes-theranos [theverge.com]
    It's not like she has anything better to do in prison

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by Thexalon on Saturday January 15 2022, @03:32AM

      by Thexalon (636) on Saturday January 15 2022, @03:32AM (#1212847)

      Better that she play herself than keep on playing investors and customers.

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @07:14AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @07:14AM (#1212877)
    I still can't believe Youtube hasn't taken down the video of her topless: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ [youtube.com]
  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by pTamok on Saturday January 15 2022, @02:31PM (6 children)

    by pTamok (3042) on Saturday January 15 2022, @02:31PM (#1212919)

    From a northern European perspective (damn socialists/communists), putting her in jail for the rest of her life strikes me as unnecessarily punitive and expensive. Punitive, because there is little difference in terms of deterrence between a short sentence and a long one*, expensive because keeping people in jail is expensive, and because have someone being unproductive to society for so long is also not cheap. Loss of liberty is adequate punishment for most people, and many studies show that rehabilitation to diminish the chance of recidivism is extremely cost-effective.
    Obviously, some people need to be incarcerated for the safety of society, or for their own safety: but for the others, rehabilitation should be the goal.

    Against longer sentences: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180514-do-long-prison-sentences-deter-crime [bbc.com]
    For longer sentences: https://www.nber.org/digest/oct98/sentence-enhancements-reduce-crime [nber.org]
    It's more complicated than you might think: https://netivist.org/debate/long-prison-sentences [netivist.org]
    One UK activist's view: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/nov/19/do-long-jail-sentences-stop-we-ask-the-expert [theguardian.com]

    Will putting her in jail deter others from defrauding? My view is that the type of personality that defrauds either doesn't think of the consequences, or believe that they are too smart to be caught.
    Is it economically effective? When you look at the cost of jail per inmate, you'd think that rehabilitation would be given a shot so that taxpayers could save the long term cost.

    So yes, out her in jail. Get her to acknowledge her guilt. Put her back in society so she can work to support herself and others (through taxes).

    *Career criminals say they fear being caught, not doing the time. It is not for nothing there is a phrase "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime" - for many, doing the time is no great imposition, and often gives an opportunity to network and learn how to be more effective criminals.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @03:17PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @03:17PM (#1212927)

      US is the world's number one jailer, incarnations rate is almost exponential
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_rate [wikipedia.org]

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @07:55PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @07:55PM (#1212987)

        they hate us because of our freedoms!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @06:37PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @06:37PM (#1212970)

      In this case, we can't necessarily assume that the sentences will run consecutively, they might well run concurrently cutting it down a lot. She's a first time offender, so she'll probably get something lower than that as well and there'll probably be time off for good behavior. It's hard to say how much time she'll actually face, but it won't be anywhere near that maximum sentence length.

      It's one of the quirks of the US that you can face basically the rest of your life behind bars and then get something thats closer to a slap on the wrist. I'd be surprised if she serves much more than 5 years when all is said and done. And it will probably be done in a country club jail that's more equivalent to a normal jail in much of Europe.

    • (Score: 2) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Saturday January 15 2022, @07:11PM

      by Beryllium Sphere (r) (5062) on Saturday January 15 2022, @07:11PM (#1212979)

      I mostly agree, though she may be just the type that is impossible to rehabilitate.

      In prison, she will make a small positive contribution, landscaping the prison grounds or cleaning or some other job. Out free, we've seen that her contribution to society is a large negative number.

    • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday January 15 2022, @10:49PM

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Saturday January 15 2022, @10:49PM (#1213025) Journal

      When the East Asian Financial Crisis hit in 1997, Vietnam executed financial managers there who were convicted of white collar crimes.

      I don't know if it has deterred anyone else since, but it's a lot more viscerally satisfying to the rest of us to hang the biggest thieves in the world instead of the slap on the wrist and tennis and golf holiday in low security jails they get in the West.

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday January 17 2022, @07:08PM

      by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Monday January 17 2022, @07:08PM (#1213447) Homepage Journal

      I'd say life in prison is about as much of a deterrent as you can get. As to the expense, I'd rather my taxes pay for her incarceration than Bush's 20 year war.

      --
      mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @09:04PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15 2022, @09:04PM (#1213004)

    Accredited investors are supposed to know when something is up. That is why there is such a process. She was the only person that "defrauded" them? Her underlings are all free and OK?

    They're just throwing the book at her because she is a woman. Balwani is still living large. He is going to stick her with the blame, I guarantee it.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @02:13PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @02:13PM (#1213128)

      Meanwhile, in the actual legal system, women are less likely to be charged, less likely to be convicted even in the same circumstances, and receive lighter sentences when they are convicted.

      "Out on bail" is not the same as "living large." She got tried first, that's all. His day in court is next. Do you know why he is being tried second? Because Elizabeth Holmes accused him of sexual abuse, which caused the judge to decide they had to be tried separately. The prosecution wanted to try them together. (I have no knowledge of whether or not the sexual abuse actually happened, but the accusation was only raised during and formed a part of her defense strategy, making it much less credible than the average similar accusation).

      But yes, by all means, let's blame the prosecution for the defense tactics.

(1)