Elizabeth Holmes won a brief reprieve from reporting to prison as a court weighs her long-shot bid to remain free on bail while she appeals her fraud conviction.
The Theranos Inc. founder was scheduled to begin her prison sentence Thursday. The US Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Wednesday granted an automatic pause on her surrender date to consider her request. That may buy her about another month of freedom, but avoiding prison beyond that appears unlikely.
The lower-court judge who presided over Holmes’s trial and sentenced her to 11 1/4 years in prison last month rejected her request for bail. Theranos President Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani was granted the same automatic pause ahead of his prison surrender date, but the appeals court ultimately turned down his request for bail while he challenges his conviction. Balwani reported to prison this month to begin his 13-year sentence.
Legal experts have said Holmes faces a high hurdle with her appeal because US District Judge Edward Davila gave her lawyers wide latitude to present her full defense at trial.
The case is USA v. Holmes, 18-cr-00258, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).