New York (CNN) Elizabeth Holmes, the former Theranos CEO convicted of defrauding investors, is seeking to delay the start of her 11-year prison sentence because she has “two very young children” to be with.
Last week’s court filing represents the first public acknowledgment that Holmes gave birth to her second child. Holmes was pregnant when she was sentenced in November 2022.
Her lawyers have outlined several reasons for delaying the prison sentence pending an appeal of her conviction, arguing that she is not a flight risk or a danger to the community. He also said she had “two young children”, but did not reveal her second child’s date of birth or gender.
In a January filing, prosecutors said Holmes tried to flee to Mexico.
“The government learned on January 23, 2022 that Defendant Holmes had booked an international flight to Mexico departing on January 26, 2022, with no scheduled round trip,” the court filing reads. “It was only after the government raised this unauthorized flight with the defense attorney that the trip was cancelled.”
Holmes’ criminal trial was originally postponed from March 2021 to August 2021 because she was pregnant with her first child. She has been married to her husband Billy Evans since 2019.
Last year, Holmes was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for defrauding investors while running failed blood testing startup Theranos. The penalty also includes a fine of $400, or $100 for each count of fraud. The refund will be fixed later.
Holmes was ordered into custody on April 27, 2023 and is appealing his conviction. A hearing is scheduled for March 17.
Holmes started Theranos in 2003 at the age of 19 and soon dropped out of Stanford University to pursue the business full time. After a decade under the radar, Holmes began courting the press by claiming that Theranos had invented technology that could accurately and reliably test for a range of conditions using just a few drops of blood taken from a finger prick.
Theranos has raised $945 million from an impressive list of investors, including media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, the Walton family of Walmart, and the billionaire family of the former US Secretary of State. Education Betsy DeVos. At its peak, Theranos was valued at $9 billion, making Holmes a billionaire on paper. She was hailed on magazine covers, frequently wearing an iconic black turtleneck that invited comparisons to the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
The company began to crumble after a Wall Street Journal investigation in 2015 found Theranos had only performed about a dozen of the hundreds of tests it offered using its blood testing device. exclusive, and with questionable accuracy. Instead, Theranos relied on third-party devices from traditional blood testing companies.