A federal judge denied
Elizabeth Holmes’s
bid for a new trial, the latest setback for the Theranos Inc. founder who was convicted of fraud in January.
U.S. District Judge
Edward Davila,
who oversaw Ms. Holmes’s trial which began last year, said in a ruling late Monday that the arguments in her three motions for a new trial didn’t introduce material new evidence or establish government misconduct, adding that a new trial was unlikely to result in an acquittal.
Ms. Holmes is scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 18. Earlier Monday, a court probation officer submitted a presentence report, an investigation into Ms. Holmes’s legal and personal background.
The judge previously denied her request for an acquittal. He also denied requests for an acquittal and new trial from Ramesh “
Sunny” Balwani,
Ms. Holmes’s former boyfriend and deputy at Theranos, who was found guilty on 12 counts of fraud and conspiracy in a separate trial that concluded in July.
Judge Davila’s rejection of Ms. Holmes’s bid for another shot at proving her innocence brings closer to a resolution a saga that became one of the most closely watched white-collar cases in Silicon Valley history. Ms. Holmes was convicted in January on four counts of criminal fraud for deceiving investors while running a yearslong scheme at Theranos, a blood-testing startup, where she was chief executive. She faces up to 20 years in prison, plus fines, for each guilty count. Lawyers following the case have said she almost certainly won’t receive the maximum penalty, based on outcomes of other white-collar prosecutions. Ms. Holmes, who is visibly pregnant, has remained out of jail after posting bail.
Attorneys for Ms. Holmes didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ms. Holmes made three requests for a new trial in September. The most significant of the requests came after an unusual encounter with former Theranos lab director Adam Rosendorff, who was also a key witness in the government’s case against her. Ms. Holmes said in a court filing that Dr. Rosendorff showed up unannounced at her home on Aug. 8 and spoke to her partner. According to the filing, Dr. Rosendorff appeared distressed in two brief conversations with Ms. Holmes’s partner and said that the government had twisted his testimony and “made things seem worse than they were” at Theranos. He felt guilty about his role in her conviction “to the point where he had difficulty sleeping,” according to the filing.
Dr. Rosendorff disputed Ms. Holmes’s characterization of his visit to her residence and said he was seeking closure, not recanting his testimony.
The encounter prompted Judge Davila to hold a hearing last month, during which he asked Dr. Rosendorff whether his testimony at trial was truthful and whether the government had pressured him to lie. Dr. Rosendorff said his testimony against his former boss was truthful, that she needs to pay her debt to society and that the government had encouraged him to tell the truth.
“At all times I testified truthfully and honestly to the best of my recollection,” Dr. Rosendorff said at the hearing. “At all times the government encouraged me to tell the truth and only the truth.”
In his decision Monday, Judge Davila said he found “Dr. Rosendorff’s statements under oath to be credible.”
“Dr. Rosendorff’s post-trial statements are too vague and general to imply that any specific testimony was actually false or misleading,” the judge wrote.
Judge Davila also agreed on Monday to delay Mr. Balwani’s sentencing, originally scheduled for next week, to Dec. 7. In his request for a later sentencing date, Mr. Balwani cited the limited availability of his family to attend and one of his lawyers filed a statement from Mr. Balwani’s doctor, a urologist. The personal medical details were redacted.
Write to Heather Somerville at [email protected]
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
For all the latest Technology News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
