Ahead of her criminal trial for wire fraud, Elizabeth Holmes, the CEO and founder of the biotech company Theranos, has welcomed her first baby with partner Billy Evans.
The boy, named William Holmes Evan, was born on July 10, per records obtained by ABC News. In March, the Theranos CEO's lawyers requested the courts to move her criminal trial for 12 counts of wire fraud from July 13 to late August because of the pregnancy.
In a statement, the lawyers said that they have met with the parties concerned and have agreed to a new date for the jury selection on August 31. Holmes' trial was supposed to have been underway earlier but the pandemic has delayed the process several times.
If the businesswoman is convicted, she could get a 20-year prison time. However, during the arraignment, Holmes told the judge that she was not guilty of the charges.
Elizabeth Holmes' Multimillion-Dollar Scheme
In 2003, Holmes launched Theranos, which offered a breakthrough technology that would "democratize healthcare." Her idea was to provide a system that will make blood tests less invasive on patients but significantly helpful to medical workers. Despite doubts about the invention, Holmes became a celebrated media darling as a woman leading a company making an innovative leap in medical diagnostics.
With Theranos' promise, Holmes was able to secure billions in investments to boost Theranos' operations. The company partnered with established medical agencies like the Cleveland Clinic and Capital BlueCross, and forged patents in the U.S. and across the world. But a story broke about the company's fraudulent activities that triggered investigations from the authorities.
In March 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Holmes and Theranos president Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani for organizing years of fraudulent activities. The CEO denied any wrongdoing but reached a settlement with the SEC. After paying half a million in penalties, Holmes was also barred from holding office as company officer for 10 years.
After the settlement, the San Francisco's U.S. Attorney's Office then filed a lawsuit against the Theranos' bosses for 12 felony charges of wire fraud. Holmes' trial was originally slated for early 2020 while Balwani's day in court will not start until January 2022.
Motherhood: Another Manipulation?
However, upon learning of Holmes' pregnancy and the birth, the prosecutors expressed frustration and disappoinment. Lawyers of the defense, on the other hand, said that they plan to provide a "quiet room" for Holmes during the trial so she could breastfeed and tend to her newborn.
Caroline Polisi, a defense lawyer following and analyzing the case, said that Holmes' new baby could "really help her" case. In the podcast The Dropout: Elizabeth Holmes on Trial, Polisi shared that being a new and young mother who will be needed by her son will have a significant bearing on the outcome of the trial.
Fellow defense lawyer Jose Baez thinks that this is another manipulation that will backfire on Holmes. He said that the jury does not like being manipulated. John Carreyrou, the Wall Street journalist who broke the story on the fraud, said that there have been allegations Holmes timed her pregnancy so she could get the sympathy of the jury and the judge.
