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Elizabeth Holmes Tried To Flee The Country To Mexico After Her Conviction, Prosecutors Allege
Federal prosecutors say that Elizabeth Holmes booked a flight to Mexico departing on Jan. 26, 2022, just weeks after she had been convicted of four counts of wire fraud for deceiving investors.
Prosecutors allege Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced former founder of the blood testing company Theranos, tried to flee the country to Mexico after her fraud conviction last year.
Holmes booked a one-way ticket to Mexico scheduled to leave on Jan. 26, 2022—just weeks after her Jan. 3 conviction on four counts of wire fraud—without a scheduled return date, according to a court filing obtained by Fox Business.
"The government became aware on January 23, 2022, that Defendant Holmes booked an international flight to Mexico departing on January 26, 2022, without a scheduled return trip," prosecutors wrote in the filing describing Holmes as a flight risk. "Only after the government raised this unauthorized flight with defense counsel was the trip canceled."
Holmes’ partner, William Evans, still flew to Mexico on Jan. 26, 2022 and didn’t return until approximately six weeks later from another continent, authorities said.
“The government anticipates Defendant will note in reply that she did not in fact leave the country as scheduled—but it is difficult to know with certainty what Defendant would have done had the government not intervened,” prosecutors wrote in the documents, also obtained by ABC News.
Holmes’ attorney Lance Wade did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Oxygen.com, but did discuss the incident with prosecutors last year, insisting that Holmes had booked the trip before her conviction.
"The hope was that the verdict would be different and Ms. Holmes would be able to make this trip to attend the wedding of close friends in Mexico," he said, according to the court records. "Given the verdict, she does not plan to take the trip – and therefore did not provide notice, seek permission or request access to her passport (which the government has) for the trip."
Wade added that Holmes had not canceled the trip “amidst everything that has been going on.”
Holmes was sentenced in November to more than 11 years behind bars for raising millions of dollars from investors after claiming she had invented a medical device known as the Edison, that would revolutionize blood testing by only requiring a few drops of blood to run a series of tests.
The technology, however, never worked and Holmes was accused of deceiving her investors and other health care companies by testing the blood samples through traditional means, without ever divulging the deception, while still touting Theranos’ capabilities in the media.
Holmes became the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire during the company's heyday, before the ruse came crashing down in 2015 when Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou publicly exposed the company’s failings.
Holmes has been scheduled to report to prison on April 27. She was given six months before the sentence began after it was revealed that she had gotten pregnant with her second child between her conviction and sentencing date.
Her attorneys are hoping to keep her out of prison while their appeal works its way through the court system.
Federal prosecutors, however, have argued that Holmes has already had a “generous” amount of time to get her affairs in order and asked the court not to grant a motion for her release pending the appeal.
“There are not two systems of justice—one for the wealthy and one for the poor—there is one criminal justice system in this country," prosecutors wrote. "And under that system, the time has come for Elizabeth Holmes to answer for her crimes committed nearly a decade ago."
They noted that Holmes is currently residing in an estate “with reportedly more than $13,000 in monthly expenses for upkeep.”
Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, Holmes’ former love interest and chief operating officer of Theranos, was found guilty of 12 counts against him, including 10 counts of federal wire fraud. He was sentenced in December to 13 years behind bars.
