A federal judge on Monday denied disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes' request to remain out of prison while she appeals her conviction on multiple counts of defrauding investors in her failed blood-testing startup.
Holmes is set to self-report to begin serving her 11.25-year sentence at a prison camp on April 27, after a jury found her guilty last year on three charges of wire fraud and one conspiracy charge on false claims to investors that her company's blood-testing technology could diagnose diseases with just a few drops of blood.
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Attorneys for Holmes pleaded for U.S. District Judge Edward Davila to allow the former Silicon Valley CEO to remain on house arrest while she appeals her conviction with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that she was not a flight risk due to her two small children and that she was not a threat to the community.
But prosecutors said her request to remain free should be denied, arguing that she is a flight risk given that she is facing a long prison sentence and has the motives and means to flee. The government claimed in an earlier filing that Holmes booked a one-way flight to Mexico weeks after her conviction in January of last year.
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Davila – who oversaw Holmes' trial and handed down her sentence – agreed Monday that she was unlikely to flee but said even if she won her appeal with the 9th U.S. Circuit, it would not reverse all counts against her or result in a new trial.
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Davila previously turned down Holmes' multiple requests for a new trial.
Reuters contributed to this report.