Convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes has asked for her sentence to be commuted. Photo / File
Convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes has asked for her sentence to be commuted. Photo / File
Disgraced former-Theranos chief executive Elizabeth Holmes has asked President Donald Trump to commute her prison sentence.
The 41-year-old, convicted of wire fraud and conspiracy, still has almost six years of her prison term left to serve, according to CNN.
ABC reported Holmes’ application for clemency was received by the JusticeDepartment some time last year and is still under review, according to the Office of the Pardon Attorney’s website.
She is currently due for release on December 30, 2031.
Holmes and former lover Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani were accused of lying to investors by promising their Theranos blood-testing machines could run medical tests from a single drop of blood drawn from a finger prick.
The Silicon Valley company was once valued at more than $15 billion, which was derived from wealthy private investors such as Rupert Murdoch and the Walton family, as well as strategic partnerships, most notably pharmaceutical giant Walgreens.
Elizabeth Holmes on the cover of Forbes in 2014. Photo / Forbes
In 2014, Forbes magazine recognised Holmes as the world’s youngest self-made billionaire. She was 30 at the time.
The fraud, which ran from 2010 to 2015, came undone following the courageous efforts from former Theranos interns Tyler Schulz and Erika Cheung to expose a culture of lies, secrecy, and dodgy science within the organisation.
The technology was uncovered as a failure in a Wall Street Journal investigation by Ronan Farrow, and the story of the company’s demise spurred numerous retellings in books, podcasts and TV series.
Holmes, who later married hotel heir Billy Evans with whom she shares two young children, was convicted in a 2022 trial in San Jose, California and ordered to pay $771 million in restitution to 14 victims.
Bloomberg.com reported she was serving her sentence at a minimum-security prison camp in Texas.
Elizabeth Holmes, centre, with her mother, Noel, and her partner, Billy Evans, arrives at the courthouse for her fraud trial in San Jose in 2021. Photo / Jim Wilson, New York Times
An application to overturn her conviction was denied at a federal appeals court in February last year.
“We are continuing to fight for my innocence and we know the truth can not be repressed for ever [sic],” a post from Holmes’ X (formerly Twitter) account read today.
The request was filed in 2025, acording to the Office of the Pardon Attorney website.
The status of the request is “pending”, meaning it’s under review.
A White House official told CNN, the White House does not comment on clemency requests.
All requests for pardons or commutations rest with President Trump, the official said.
If Trump commutes her sentence, she would still face restitution and probation, obligations that would not apply if she received a pardon.
Last week, Trump pardoned convicted fraudster Adriana Camberos for a second time, after he granted her clemency for another fraud during his first term, the Guardian reported.
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