Theranos scammer Elizabeth Holmes denies attempting to flee to Mexico

Theranos con artist Elizabeth Holmes has fired back after prosecutors claimed she made an “attempt to flee the country” by buying a one-way ticket to Mexico leaving shortly after her conviction last year.

In a court filing Monday, Holmes’ legal team accused prosecutors of “recklessly and improperly” making false statements in court in their motion last week to oppose his release pending appeal.

Holmes, 38, will report to federal prison on April 27 to begin serving an 11-year sentence, but is seeking bail while he appeals his January 2022 conviction for misleading investors with his evidence technology. fake doctors.

Prosecutors strongly opposed extending her bail in a motion last week that contained the dramatic claim that Holmes tried to flee by booking a flight to Mexico that would leave weeks after a jury convicted her.

In their response, Holmes’ lawyers insisted that her partner, Billy Evans, booked the flight to the luxurious resort town of Puerto Vallarta before her conviction, saying the couple planned to attend a friend’s wedding if she had been acquitted. .

A beach like Puerto Vallarta is seen in a file photo. Holmes had a flight booked to the luxury resort town for the end of January 2022, but says he only planned to go if she is cleared.

The defense motion asserts that the prosecutors in their filing “recklessly and incorrectly accuse Ms. Holmes and her partner of attempted elopement and present incomplete and demonstrably inaccurate statements of fact in support of that accusation.”

Holmes’s team asked the court to strike out certain parts of the government’s motion as factually false.

In particular, they dispute the claim that Evans departed on the January 26, 2022 flight to Mexico and did not return to the US for six weeks, when he flew back from Cape Town, South Africa.

However, Evans insisted in court documents that he returned to the US on January 30, took several domestic flights, and then flew to Cape Town on a separate trip in late February.

To back up his claim, Evans provided receipts for electronic tolls and plane tickets, as well as a photo he said showed him at his California home on February 2 playing with the young son he shares with Holmes.

Evans, 29, is the heir to a family business that manages luxury hotels in San Diego. He reportedly secretly married Holmes in 2019 and stood by her during her criminal trial and sentencing.

Disputing the government’s claims, Evans provided receipts for electronic tolls and plane tickets, as well as a photo (above) that he said showed him at his home in California on February 2 playing with the young son he shares with Holmes.

Evans, 29, is the heir to a family business that manages luxury hotels in San Diego. He reportedly secretly married Holmes in 2019 and stood by her side during her criminal trial.

The couple had their first child in July 2021 and Holmes is currently pregnant with their second child. Despite reports that they are married, court documents refer to Evans as her “fiancé and partner” rather than her husband.

In their filing last week, prosecutors alleged 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.

Holme’s defense team also provided an email from Assistant US Attorney Jeffrey Benjamin Schenk that appeared to dismiss concerns about the flight after his legal team confirmed the booking had been cancelled.

“Thank you again for the background information, confirmation, and for quickly addressing this situation,” Schenk wrote in the January 24, 2022 email.

“I don’t think there’s a need for us to discuss this further, but I’ll certainly be in touch if that changes, and feel free to reach out if you don’t agree,” he added.

A hearing on the new motions is scheduled for March 17 in federal court in San Diego.

Holmes’ defense team also provided an email from Assistant US Attorney Jeffrey Benjamin Schenk that appeared to dismiss concerns about the flight from Mexico.

A jury convicted Holmes, who was CEO of Theranos during the company’s turbulent 15-year history, on three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit fraud.

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.

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 the judge made mistakes, which included allowing the jury to hear about the regulatory action against Theranos and the company’s annulment of all test results from its ‘Edison’ machines.

A jury convicted Holmes, who was chief executive officer 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.