Elizabeth Holmes gets a year knocked off her prison term

Patricia Hurtado and Peter Blumberg, Bloomberg News on Mar 26, 2026

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Disgraced Theranos Inc. founder Elizabeth Holmes got a year knocked off her 11 1/4-year prison term under a change in sentencing guidelines that applies to convicts with no previous criminal history.

Holmes qualified for the reduced term under a 2023 rule change allowing first-time offenders to do less time for some non-violent crimes, according to an order issued Thursday by the federal judge who sentenced her in 2022 for defrauding investors in her blood-testing startup.

“To be clear, this sentence reduction does not diminish the enormity of Holmes’s crimes, nor does it ignore the significant negative impact her conduct has had on the community,” wrote U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California.

In June, lawyers for Holmes had asked the judge to cut as much as 27 months off her 135-month sentence, touting her “impeccable incarceration record.” During the more than two years she has been at a minimum-security prison camp in Texas, Holmes has helped fellow prisoners navigate the justice system and “pursued all opportunities for growth, self-improvement, and education available,” the attorneys said in a court filing.

Prosecutors had objected to a reduced sentence, saying the revised leniency provision shouldn’t apply because Holmes “personally caused substantial financial hardship” by defrauding more than 30 investors in Theranos of more than $800 million. They also said Holmes is “ripe for recidivism.”

“Since sentencing, Holmes has courted the media once more to repeat her intention to continue working on technology in the health care field, and has demonstrated that she has the interest and opportunity to commit a similar scheme in the future despite the widespread publicity of her conviction,” they wrote in a July filing.

Holmes’ appeal of her conviction was rejected in February 2025. In December, she submitted an application formally asking President Donald Trump to release her from prison without having to serve the rest of her term.

She was convicted by a jury in 2022 of four counts of wire fraud and conspiracy after a four-month trial. Prosecutors presented evidence and witness testimony that she knew the blood-testing devices she pitched as revolutionary to venture capitalists and wealthy investors didn’t actually work.

Davila had also ordered Holmes and her former boyfriend and co-defendant Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, who was president of Theranos, to pay $452 million in restitution to victims of their fraud. Balwani was sentenced to almost 13 years in prison following his conviction.

In 2023, Holmes objected to a payment schedule that would require her to pay restitution of at least $250 a month, or 10% of her earnings, once she’s released from prison, saying she only had “limited financial resources.”

Davila on Thursday approved the minimum $250-a-month requirement. Holmes only has to pay $25 every three months while incarcerated.