Posts Tagged: prison

Elizabeth Holmes sentenced to 11 years in prison on fraud charges

Elizabeth Holmes, the former CEO and founder of Theranos, has been sentenced to just over 11 years in prison for defrauding the investors of her blood testing startup. The sentence comes almost a year after Holmes was found guilty on four counts of fraud following a months-long trial.

In total, Holmes was sentenced to 135 months in prison, as well as three years of supervised release. A surrender date was set for April 27th. She will also be ordered to pay restitution, though Judge Ed Davila said that amount will be determined at a separate hearing. Prosecutors had asked for more than $ 800 million in restitution, accounting for 29 investors, but at the sentencing hearing, Davila said restitution would be based on $ 121 million in losses to 10 investors, according to The New York Times

Ahead of her sentencing, prosecutors had pushed for a 15-year sentence, while Holmes’ attorneys argued she should get no more than 18 months of house arrest. Her probation officer had recommended nine years, The New York Times reported.

Throughout the trial, Holmes’ lawyers tried to portray the Theranos founder as a young and inexperienced entrepreneur who hadn’t intended to deceive investors or the public. During her testimony, Holmes blamed many of Theranos’ problems on others at the company, including her former partner Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani.

She also testified that Balwani was abusive during their romantic relationship, and that he had misled her about what was happening in Theranos’ lab. Balwani, who as COO also oversaw day-to-day operations of the company’s lab, was found guilty on 12 counts of fraud in a separate trial earlier this year. His sentencing is scheduled for December.

Even at her sentencing, Holmes proved she still has influential allies to defend her. Several Silicon Valley investors, including early Theranos backer Tim Draper, wrote letters of support urging the judge for a lighter sentence. New Jersey Senator Cory Booker also wrote in her support, asking the judge for “a fair and just sentence.”

Holmes delivered a brief statement at her sentencing hearing. “I regret my failings with every cell of my body,” she said, according to Law360’s Dorothy Atkins. Holmes was crying throughout her statement, according to multiple reporters in the courtroom.

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Former eBay execs get prison time in cyberstalking case involving Twitter threats and fetal pig deliveries

Two of the eBay executives who were charged for staging a cyberstalking campaign against the creators of the eCommerceBytes newsletter have been sentenced to prison. The Justice Department says that these execs, along with five other former eBay employees, worked together to intimidate David and Ina Steiner. They apparently hatched a scheme targeting the Steiners shortly after Ina published an article in their newsletter about a lawsuit eBay filed accusing Amazon of poaching its sellers. David said the people involved in their harassment made their lives "a living hell."

James Baugh, eBay's former senior director of safety and security, was sentenced to almost five years in prison and was ordered to pay a fine of $ 40,000. Meanwhile, David Harville, eBay's former Director of Global Resiliency and the last person in the case who pleaded guilty, got a two-year sentence and was ordered to pay a $ 20,000 fine. 

According to the DOJ, the group sent disturbing deliveries to the couple's home, including "a book on surviving the death of a spouse, a bloody pig mask, a fetal pig, a funeral wreath and live insects." They also sent the couple threatening Twitter messages and posted on Craigslist to invite the public to partake in sexual encounters at the victims' home. Authorities also said that Baugh, Harville and another eBay employee monitored the couple's home in person with the intention of attaching a GPS tracker to their car. 

Based on the case's court documents, David Wenig, who was eBay's CEO at the time, sent another top exec a message that said "If you are ever going to take her down … now is the time" 30 minutes after Ina's post was published. In turn, that executive sent Wenig's message to Baugh, adding that Ina was a "biased troll who needs to get BURNED DOWN." As The Washington Post notes, Wenig was not charged in the case but is facing a civil lawsuit from the Steiners, who accused him of attempting to "intimidate, threaten to kill, torture, terrorize, stalk and silence them." He denied any knowledge of the harassment campaign. 

As for Baugh and Harville, both asked the Steiners for forgiveness, according to The Post. "I take 100% responsibility for this, and there is no excuse for what I have done. The bottom line is simply this: If I had done the right thing and been strong enough to make the right choice, we wouldn’t be here today, and for that I am truly sorry," Baugh said.

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Ex-Waymo engineer Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison

US District Judge William Alsup has sentenced Anthony Levandowski, the former lead Waymo engineer at the heart of a trade secret legal battle between the Alphabet subsidiary and Uber, to 18 months in prison. Prosecutors sought a 27-month sentence, wh…
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First person sentenced for SIM hijacking faces 10 years in prison

SIM card hijackers are starting to face the consequences of their actions. California college student Joel Ortiz has agreed to a plea deal that will have him serve 10 years in prison for stealing over $ 5 million in cryptocurrency through SIM swappin…
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