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Theranos con artist Elizabeth Holmes made an “attempt to flee the country” by purchasing a one-way ticket to Mexico leaving shortly after her conviction last year, federal prosecutors alleged.
Prosecutors made the dramatic claim in a court filing Thursday opposing Holmes’s request to remain free on bail while he appeals his conviction and 11-year prison sentence.
Holmes, 38, was convicted on January 3, 2022 of misleading investors into believing that her startup Theranos had developed a revolutionary medical testing device. She is scheduled to report to prison on April 27, after her second pregnancy is due.
The new filing reveals that, weeks after she was convicted, the government discovered that Holmes had reservations for a flight to Mexico on January 26, 2022, with no apparent return ticket.
When prosecutors contacted one of Holmes’s lawyers, he claimed that she had booked the ticket before the jury’s verdict and hoped to make the international trip after being found not guilty.
Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes arrives in federal court in San Jose, California, in October. Prosecutors accuse her of trying to flee the country last January
Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, left, walks with her partner, Billy Evans.
An email from prosecutors to Holmes’ lawyer last January reveals that the government learned of his flight reservation to Mexico and found it “troubling.”
“The hope was that the verdict would be different and that Ms. Holmes would be able to make this trip to attend the wedding of close friends in Mexico,” Holmes’ attorney, Lance Wade, told prosecutors in an email, which was attached as evidence to the court file.
Wade claimed in the email that Holmes had forgotten to cancel the flight “in the midst of everything that’s been going on,” but promised he would.
But to prosecutors, the incident was a troubling alleged attempt to flee. “Only after the government raised this unauthorized flight with the defense attorney was the trip cancelled,” the motion argued.
The motion stated that Holmes’ husband, Billy Evans, left the country on the scheduled January 26 flight to Mexico, only returning six weeks later, flying back from Cape Town, South Africa.
The new government filing also alleges that Holmes “continues to show no remorse for his victims,” including investors whose roughly $900 million investments in Theranos went up in smoke when the company’s deception was exposed.
Holmes’ legal team has not responded to the government’s motion, and Wade did not immediately respond to a DailyMail.com request for comment on Friday afternoon.
Holmes’ lawyer, Lance Wade, told prosecutors that she had booked the ticket before the jury’s verdict and hoped to make the international trip after being found not guilty.
Holmes has been living in a luxurious mansion with her husband Billy Evans and their son during the court proceedings. She is due to give birth to a second child in the next few months.
Prosecutors said Holmes’ husband, Billy Evans, left the country on the scheduled January 26 flight to Mexico and only returned six weeks later.
In November, US District Judge Edward Davila sentenced Holmes to 11 years in federal prison and postponed the start of the sentence until April 27 because of her pregnancy.
Holmes, whose first pregnancy delayed her trial, is currently pregnant with her second child and must give birth before reporting to prison.
She is appealing the conviction and sentence in the United States Court of Appeals, seeking a new trial, and has asked to remain free pending a ruling on her appeal.
In the filing, Holmes’ lawyers said: “This was a complex, close, months-long trial with numerous witnesses and hundreds of pieces of evidence that produced a split verdict. The file is full of issues to appeal.
Holmes’ filing also claimed that the judge made errors, which included allowing the jury to hear about the regulatory action against Theranos, and the cancellation by the company of all the results of the tests of its ‘Edison’ machines
A jury convicted Holmes, who was CEO during the company’s turbulent 15-year history, on three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit fraud after seven days of deliberation.
She was acquitted of four other fraud and conspiracy counts alleging she also deceived patients who paid for Theranos blood tests.
In November, Judge Dávila recommended that Holmes serve his prison sentence in a minimum-security prison camp in Texas.
The prison camp the judge recommended is in Bryan, Texas, about 100 miles north of Houston, where Holmes attended high school. It is designated for female inmates and currently houses about 540 female inmates.
Federal Bureau of Prisons officials make the final decision on inmate assignments, but they often take the court’s recommendation into consideration.