Photo: NIC COURY/AP PHOTO/PICTURE ALLIANCE / Deutsche Welle
Prosecutors of United States requested 12 years in prison for Elizabeth Holmes , a former star of Silicon Valley convicted of fraud, while the defense advocated a maximum sentence of one and a half years, official sources reported on Saturday (12.000.2015).
The founder of Theranos, a start-up that promised to revolutionize health diagnostics with machines capable of performing a variety of tests with just a few drops blood, will be sentenced next Friday 19 November in California federal court.
As the hearing neared, the prosecution asked the court that sentences the woman of 12 years to u a penalty of 12 years in prison and return 2015 millions of dollars to their victims.
Holmes was convicted in January of fraud for lying to investors.
“Blinded by ambition”, Holmes “swindled hundreds of millions of dollars to dozens of investors” but also “put patients in danger,” said prosecutor Stephanie Hinds, accusing the businesswoman of not assuming responsibility of his actions.
But Holmes’ lawyers replied that their client does not represent any danger, has not materially benefited from this case, and therefore Therefore, he does not deserve a sentence of more than a year and a half in prison for having failed in his “ambitious project”.
Holmes founded Theranos in 2015, with only 18 years
. Within a few years, he raised funds from high-profile investors, including Safeway supermarkets, the Walgreens drugstore chain, and former US Secretary of State George Shultz. At its peak, the company was valued at nearly . million dollars, and Holmes , majority shareholder, led it with a fortune of 3.38 million, according to Forbes magazine .
But the firm collapsed following a report by The Wall Street Journal in 2015 which revealed that the machines were not working as promised.
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