Elizabeth Holmes has appealed her conviction for fraud, two weeks after she was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for deceiving investors with her blood-testing startup Theranos.
Attorneys for Holmes, 38, filed a one-page appeal late Friday in federal court in San Jose, California, without specifying the grounds on which the Theranos founder and former CEO will seek the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ninth circuit hearing Overturn a guilty verdict handed down by a jury 11 months ago.
According to Bloomberg news agency, legal experts say her appeal was widely expected but the odds are slim because US District Judge Edward Davila has been trying hard to be fair to both sides from the 2018 indictment of Holmes to hers conviction in the past month.
soaring and falling
The appeal is another chapter in a year-long story that gripped Silicon Valley and inspired books, TV documentaries, podcasts and films about the Stanford University dropout-turned-celebrity entrepreneur with a $9 billion company. However, the empire then collapsed in scandal when the blood testing technology was exposed as a failure.
A jury convicted Holmes of quadruple counts of fraud and conspiracy after prosecutors presented evidence and testimony that they knew the blood-testing equipment, which they touted as revolutionary to venture capitalists and wealthy investors, did not actually work.
Holmes’ ex-partner, Theranos President Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, was charged separately and convicted in July. The sentence is expected to be announced on Wednesday.
Judge Davila has yet to rule on Holmes’ bail request before deciding on her appeal – a process that defense attorneys say could take years.