Act Daily News
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Elizabeth Holmes made an “attempt to flee the country” by reserving a one-way ticket to Mexico departing in January 2022, shortly after the Theranos founder was convicted of fraud, prosecutors alleged in a brand new court docket submitting Friday.
Holmes was convicted final January of defrauding buyers whereas operating the failed blood testing startup Theranos. In November, she was sentenced to greater than 11 years in jail. She has appealed her conviction and doesn’t begin her jail sentence till this spring, a ready interval that prosecutors described as “generous” and because of her being pregnant.
The declare that she tried to go away the nation final yr surfaced as a part of a brand new submitting from prosecutors arguing that Holmes ought to start serving her jail sentence moderately than dwelling on an property reported to have $13,000 in month-to-month bills for repairs.
In the submitting, prosecutors argue Holmes has not proven convincing proof that she is just not a flight threat, as her legal professionals have said, and used the alleged 2022 incident to assist their issues that she might pose such a threat.
“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,” the court docket submitting states. “Only after the government raised this unauthorized flight with defense counsel was the trip canceled.”
The submitting provides that prosecutors anticipate Holmes will “reply that she did not in fact leave the country as scheduled” however stated “it is difficult to know with certainty” what she would have performed “had the government not intervened.” Now, within the wake of her sentencing, prosecutors say “the incentive to flee has never been higher” and Holmes “has the means to act on that incentive.”
An legal professional for Holmes didn’t instantly reply to Act Daily News’s request for touch upon the submitting Friday.
The court docket submitting contains an electronic mail from one in all Holmes’ attorneys to the prosecution, claiming that the journey reservation was made earlier than the decision. In the e-mail, Holmes’ legal professional claims the previous Theranos CEO hoped the decision could be totally different and that she would have the ability to make this journey to attend the marriage of buddies in Mexico.
In an earlier court docket submitting, Holmes’ attorneys argued for her launch from custody pending enchantment, saying she was not a flight threat or a risk to the neighborhood.
Holmes has been ordered to show herself into custody on April 27, 2023, at which level her jail sentence will start.
“There are not two systems of justice – one for the wealthy and one for the poor – there is one criminal justice system in this country,” prosecutors said within the submitting. They argue that “under that system, the time has come” for Holmes to reply for her crimes.
Once valued at $9 billion, Theranos attracted prime buyers and retail companions with claims that it had developed know-how to check for a variety of circumstances utilizing just some drops of blood. The firm started to unravel after a Wall Street Journal investigation in 2015 reported that Theranos had solely ever carried out roughly a dozen of the a whole bunch of checks it supplied utilizing its proprietary know-how, and with questionable accuracy.