Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes 'tried to flee to Mexico'

2023-01-20

One last con! Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes tried to FLEE to Mexico on one-way ticket after being convicted, prosecutors claim as they urge judge to lock her up by April

Prosecutors on Thursday accused Holmes of an ‘attempt to flee the country’
Said she booked one-way flight to Mexico departing shortly after her conviction
Holmes’ attorneys said she had planned to attend a wedding if found not guilty
Incident was revealed in motion opposing Holmes’ release pending appeal
Holmes is due to report for an 11-year prison sentence starting on April 27

Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes made an ‘attempt to flee the country’ by purchasing a one-way ticket to Mexico departing soon after her conviction last year, federal prosecutors have alleged.

Prosecutors made the dramatic claim in a court filing on Thursday opposing Holmes’ request to remain free on bail as she appeals her conviction and 11-year prison sentence.

Holmes, 38, was convicted on January 3, 2022 of duping investors into believing her startup Theranos had developed a revolutionary medical testing device. She is set to report to prison on April 27, after the due date for her second pregnancy.

The new filing reveals that, weeks after she was convicted, the government discovered that Holmes had reservations for a flight to Mexico on January 26, 2022, with no apparent return ticket.

When prosecutors contacted one of Holmes’ attorneys, he claimed she had booked the ticket prior to the jury verdict, and expected to make the international jaunt after being found not guilty.

Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes arrives at federal court in San Jose, California in October. Prosecutors accuse her of attempting to flee the country last January

Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, left, walks with her partner, Billy Evans

An email from prosecutors to Holmes’ attorney last January reveals the government learned of her flight reservation to Mexico and found it ‘concerning’

‘The hope was that the verdict would be different and Ms. Holmes would be able to make this trip to attend the wedding of close friends in Mexico,’ Holmes’ attorney Lance Wade told prosecutors in an email, which was attached as an exhibit to the court filing.

Wade claimed in the email that Holmes had forgotten to cancel the flight reservation ‘amidst everything that has been going on’ but promised to have her do so.

But to prosecutors, the incident was a troubling alleged attempt to flee. ‘Only after the government raised this unauthorized flight with defense counsel was the trip canceled,’ the motion argued.

The motion stated that Holmes’ husband Billy Evans did leave the country on the scheduled January 26 flight to Mexico, and only returned six weeks later, flying back from Cape Town, South Africa.

The new government filing also alleges that Holmes ‘continues to show no remorse to her victims’ including the investors whose roughly $900 million in investments in Theranos went up in smoke when the company’s deception was revealed.

Holmes’ legal team has not responded to the government motion, and Wade did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com on Friday afternoon.

Holmes’ attorney Lance Wade told prosecutors she had booked the ticket prior to the jury verdict, and expected to make the international jaunt after being found not guilty

Holmes has been living in a lavish mansion with her husband Billy Evans and their child during the court process. She is due to give birth to a second child in the coming months

Prosecutors said that Holmes’ husband Billy Evans did leave the country on the scheduled January 26 flight to Mexico, and only returned six weeks later

In November, US District Judge Edward Davila sentenced Holmes to 11 years in federal prison, deferring the start of the sentence to April 27 due to her pregnancy.

Holmes, whose first pregnancy delayed her trial, is currently pregnant with her second child and is due to give birth before she reports to prison.

She is appealing the conviction and sentence in the U.S. Court of Appeals, seeking a new trial, and has asked to remain free until there is a ruling on her appeal.

In the filing, Holmes’ lawyers said: ‘This was a complex, hard-fought, multi-month trial with numerous witnesses and hundreds of exhibits that produced a split verdict. The record is teeming with issues for appeal.’

Holmes’ filing also claimed errors were made by the the judge, which included permitting the jury to hear about regulatory action against Theranos, and the company’s voiding of all test results from its ‘Edison’ machines

A jury convicted Holmes, who was CEO throughout the company’s turbulent 15-year history, on three counts of wire fraud and one counts of conspiracy to commit fraud after seven days of deliberation.

She was acquitted on four other counts of fraud and conspiracy that alleged she deceived patients who paid for Theranos blood tests, too.

In Novmeber, Judge Davila recommended that Holmes serve her prison sentence at a minimum-security prison camp in Texas.

The prison camp the judge recommended is in Bryan, Texas, about 100 miles north of Houston, where Holmes attended high school. It is designated for female inmates and currently houses about 540 inmates.

Officials at the Federal Bureau of Prisons make the final determination on inmate assignments, but often take the court’s recommendation into consideration.

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