Elizabeth Holmes appeals Theranos fraud conviction

Fallen US biotech star Elizabeth Holmes has asked an appeals court to overturn her conviction in the Theranos fraud trial that saw her sentenced to more than 11 years in prison.

Holmes and her legal team have until March 3 of next year to file briefs and trial transcripts backing their petition, according to a notice posted to the docket on Monday by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California.

Holmes’s appeal said she is challenging the prison sentence handed down in November, as well as “any and all adverse rulings incorporated in, antecedent to, or ancillary to the judgment.”

Holmes was sentenced to just over 11 years in prison for defrauding investors with her Silicon Valley start-up Theranos.

She was convicted on four felony fraud counts in January for persuading investors that she had developed a revolutionary medical device before the company flamed out after an investigation by The Wall Street Journal.

The closely watched case became an indictment of Silicon Valley, and US federal prosecutors had sought a 15-year jail term for Holmes. She was sentenced to 135 months.

Holmes, who is pregnant, will not have to surrender herself until April next year, ordered US District Judge Edward Davila in a courtroom in San Jose, California.

The 38-year-old became a star of Silicon Valley when she said her start-up was perfecting an easy-to-use test kit that could carry out a wide range of medical diagnostics with just a few drops of blood.

© 2022 AFP