Elizabeth Holmes says she can’t afford to pay Theranos victims $US250 a month

“The Court had before it substantial evidence showing Ms. Holmes’ limited financial resources and has appropriately treated Ms. Holmes and Mr. Balwani differently in sentencing; and the Court issued the Holmes and Balwani Amended Judgments within twenty minutes of each other, which suggests any differences between the two judgments were not inadvertent,” the filing said.

Holmes doesn’t object to $US25 quarterly payments while she’s incarcerated, but argues the government is wrong to assume the absence of a post-prison payback schedule means the judge simply made a mistake.

Holmes rose to prominence with her promise of a revolution in health care, based on her claims the compact Theranos devices could perform hundreds of diagnostic tests faster, more accurately and cheaper than traditional, bigger machines.

A big selling point was that Theranos analysers could arrive at the results with just a pinprick instead of vials of drawn blood. Holmes cited her own fear of needles as inspiration for the invention, part of the narrative investors and the public heard over years in her promotion of the technology.

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By 2015 Holmes was dubbed by Forbes as the youngest female self-made billionaire and was gracing the covers of magazines. But that same year, the Wall Street Journal published stories pointing to flaws in Theranos technology, which led regulators the following year to conclude the machines posed a danger to patient health.

She was found guilty of criminal fraud in 2022.