Theranos Fraudster Elizabeth Holmes Has Prison Sentence Reduced Again (theguardian.com) 72
For the second time, the disgraced former CEO of Theranos has had her federal prison sentence shortened. In July, it was reduced by two years. Now, 40-year-old Holmes is scheduled for release on August 16, 2032 instead of December 29, 2032 -- a reduction of more than four months. The Guardian reports: People incarcerated in the U.S. can have their sentences shortened for good conduct and for completing rehabilitation programs, such as a substance abuse program. The latest reduction of Holmes's sentence still meets federal sentencing guidelines. Those guidelines mandate that people convicted of federal offenses must serve at least 85% of their sentence, regardless of reductions for good behavior.
In 2022, Holmes was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison after being convicted on four counts of defrauding investors. She was also ordered to pay $452m in restitution to those she defrauded, but a judge delayed those payments due to Holmes's "limited financial resources." Holmes's lawyers have already begun attempts to get her conviction overturned. Oral arguments for her appeal are set to begin on June 11 in a federal appeals court in San Francisco, California, NBC News reported.
In 2022, Holmes was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison after being convicted on four counts of defrauding investors. She was also ordered to pay $452m in restitution to those she defrauded, but a judge delayed those payments due to Holmes's "limited financial resources." Holmes's lawyers have already begun attempts to get her conviction overturned. Oral arguments for her appeal are set to begin on June 11 in a federal appeals court in San Francisco, California, NBC News reported.
Sociopath manipulates justice system (Score:3, Insightful)
Are we surprised? Honestly, my surprise stems from her apparent ability to afford the lawyers for this, but I guess it helps when you don't actually have to pay the fine.
Re:Sociopath manipulates justice system (Score:4, Insightful)
Next time I'm reincarnated I'm going to opt for being a member of the privileged class.
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Next time I'm reincarnated I'm going to opt for being a member of the privileged class.
White? Like this guy [imgur.com]?
50% Sociopath - 50% a pass due to empathy (Score:2)
She was arrested and claimed most all of the 'get out of prison time' cards women play
- Abusive relationship
- Trauma earlier in life
- Anxiety and other mental conditions
- Got pregnant with twins to get a 2 year delay in the trial
- Tried to use the 'would you deprive my babies of their mother' pass to get out of jail, get house arrest, probation
And the end result of slap on the wrist is explained by Sentencing Disparity
- Men receive 63% longer jail sentences for the same crime
- Women are twice as likely to g
preempting the but, but.... (Score:2)
The sentencing disparity is even after controlling for the same crime, same criminal circumstances, same criminal background, ...
Read the wikipedia page and some of the linked academic studies to get a better picture of this disparity.
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Next time I'm reincarnated I'm going to opt for being a member of the privileged class.
Er, sentences are reduced all the time, even for the truly privileged classes (the ones who people are taught to think get a raw deal).
Even for violent members of the truly privileged classes. After all, we must consider "root causes" and all that ...
Re: Sociopath manipulates justice system (Score:4, Interesting)
Wait, SHE didn't have to pay her fine before she could appeal the conviction? Oh, that's just a special law in New York that only applies to some people... [bloomberg.com] got it.
No it's a pretty common practice (Score:2)
It's not that Donald Trump didn't get special treatment it's that she did. And the reason Trump didn't get the special treatment is that there's too many eyes on the case and it would look bad to give Trump the special treatment members of the ruling class normally get.
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This isn't a fine reduced by lawyers, courts, or any appeal. This is just normal operation of prisons which bounce around your release dates on a whim. It didn't change significantly. The only reason this is in the news is because she was famous.
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Because she wasn't part of the approved fraudsters. You don't fraud the fraudsters.
What's Her Addiction (Score:4, Funny)
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FWIW, I have known people addicted to weed. It's unusual, but it does happen. (But it's much more common to be addicted to sugar or excessive salt.)
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Substances most people do not regard as addictive (weed) or inherently dangerous (alcohol) are viewed as both by the Federal and most State criminal justice systems.
If alcohol isn’t “inherently” dangerous, then perhaps you can explain an auto insurers mentality towards risk when punishing a one-time DUI offender that caused no harm or death who will pay for that crime many many years beyond any criminal punishment with horrific insurance rates.
A full blown alcoholic busted for one DUI, could got through all 12 steps, become an AA chapter president and local pastor, and insurance would still treat them as inherently high risk. Why, if alcohol isn
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
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You might note that I said most people don't regard it as inherently dangerous. I chose brevity rather than a wall of text about alcohol abuse that manifests in a minority of users.
Regarding insurance companies, I think you already know the answer: That person has demonstrated absolutely horrible judgment and the statistics on recidivism for DWI aren't flattering. They'll probably cancel you outright, if allowed under state law, but if they keep you they will surcharge you for the longest period of time allowed under state law.
As many a hurricane victim can attest, insurance will also cancel you for having the nerve to put your house in the path of nature. The DWI person demonstrated horrible judgement. I agree. So lock them up for a decade. Take away their driving rights for life, right? I mean why are we even allowing law enforcement to be so “weak” here? Why don’t they punish for FAR longer like insurance does? Under state law, they gave you your driving rights back. The State actually forgave the one
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Alcohol is inherently dangerous in at least two ways. One, it's toxic. Two, it reduces inhibitions in exactly the way that the other substance you mentioned (weed) doesn't. That's why it raises accident risk but weed doesn't - people on weed are able to recognize and account for impairment by driving slower and maintaining longer following distances.
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I'm sure she'll be happy to strap you in front of a camera.
Drop that b(ass). (Score:2)
I'm buying a bunch of her debt, going to see if she wants to porn her way out of debt.
Might want to negotiate which voice she’s gonna use first, unless you've already got a script for Baritone Bimbos Blow Broadway
Kind of overblown (Score:3, Insightful)
Some CEOs have literally worked through shadow companies to disrupt state and federal elections, and their investigations were cancelled, even after emails from them that are basically a smoking gun are released. I don't feel bad for Holmes, but I do think she's getting it way harder than other people who had nothing happen to them. Nobody went to jail for the global financial meltdown, but we're quibbling over a few months' sentence for a single snake-oil saleswoman?
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Have you heard about the goat sent into the wilderness after the Jewish chief priest had symbolically laid the sins of the people upon it (Lev. 16)?
Truth... Four months?? (Score:2)
Based on the title, I thought it was going to be cutting the sentence in half or more.
And I'm pretty sure that one or two CEOs did dirtier things in and around the 2008 recession and none of them ever saw jail time...
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Nobody went to jail for the global financial meltdown, but we're quibbling over a few months' sentence for a single snake-oil saleswoman?
welcome to slashdot. if it aint baity it aint clicky! we're bored here!
tbf, the article clearly states that she's just receiving regular benefits, and pinky promises that she'll still do over 9 years. then again a good question to ask is if everyone entangled in the u.s. prison industrial megacomplex for whatever reason is having the same opportunities and scrutiny.
Re: Kind of overblown (Score:2)
Countless tens of thousands of convicted felons in the U.S. were let out of jail because of "Covid" - remember? And convicts only serving a fraction of their sentence because of either overcrowding or good behavior is something that has been going on for decades, there's nothing in this article to make one think her 4 month sentence reduction is anything out of the ordinary... the only reason we have this story here onnslashdot is because some people still have alerts set to catch anything new relating to t
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we're quibbling over a few months' sentence for a single snake-oil saleswoman?
Well, not exactly, we're upset about the reduced sentence for a scumbag piece of $#it who put people's lives at risk with fake medical results for blood tests. People were diagnosed with diseases they didn't have or healthy lives when they actually had diseases. People stopped taking necessary medications because they thought they were healthy. One guy went on record for discontinuing use of blood thinning medication based on flawed test results .
Financial Priorities (Score:3)
She was also ordered to pay $452m in restitution to those she defrauded, but a judge delayed those payments due to Holmes's "limited financial resources." Holmes's lawyers....
Clearly her financial resources were not so limited that she could not afford lawyers. Perhaps repaying those she defrauded should have a higher priority than finding money to pay lawyers for an appeal?
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What if those investors are so used to practicing fraud in their own lives that they had insured their investments and are not really suffering in any legitimate sense of the word?
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Justice may be blind, but she sure as fuck has her other senses. Like the bribe, ahem I mean lawyer fees to cover the judges golf game green fees, rich fucks getting off with slaps on the wrist for stuff that any of those POOR people would get life sentences for.
She feels that money as soon as it slaps into her palm. Probably even smells the left over cocaine on the bills too!
Re: Financial Priorities (Score:2)
Until she exhausts her appeals, her conviction won't stand. You can't ask someone to pay a $450M fine before they can appeal their conviction - oh wait, I guess you can... [bloomberg.com]
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So they spend all their ill gotten money on lawyer fees, and then can't pay the fine.
It seems the entire system is designed to enrich lawyers at the expense of everyone else.
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Until she exhausts her appeals, her conviction won't stand. You can't ask someone to pay a $450M fine before they can appeal their conviction
What you can do is require them to put the money into court-controlled escrow though and they can fund any appeals from what they have left. Allowing them to spend all their money on lawyers in a desperate attempt to reverse the verdict is unfair. A guilty verdict ought to mean something otherwise why bother at all?
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Not that I don't agree with you in principle that the process itself is the punishment in the case of Darth Cheeto, but there is an important difference here, and it's highlighted by your use of the word "conviction." Darth Cheeto was not "convicted" of anything in that case, it was a civil judgement and the procedures and protections are quite different in those. The law doesn't care that the plaintiff in that case was the state rather than another private party, both plaintiff and defendant are treated a
Re: Financial Priorities (Score:2)
How do you insure an investment in a start-up?
You're literally just making shit up to try and minimize the impact of her horrible, horrible, defrauding of not only investors, but PATIENTS who got mis-diagnosed or incorrect test results.
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What if you hedged your bets and came out ahead because you wrote off the loss and reduced your taxable income from other sources?
What if this is silly and just another man-made problem anyway because the Fed could easily make all the investors whole like it did with Silicon Valley Bank, whenever it feels like it?
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Clearly her financial resources were not so limited that she could not afford lawyers.
Lawyers were not involved in this sentence reduction. This is normal prison operational stuff. The only reason it's in the news is because she's famous.
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Trump was right (Score:1)
There is a two tier justice system. How else can you get 10 strikes for contempt of court or only face jail time when you defraud rich people?
Re: Trump was right (Score:1)
Donate to Democrats? https://www.opensecrets.org/do... [opensecrets.org]
This just in from America's Finest News Source (Score:2)
good (Score:2)
Re:good - some people (Score:4, Insightful)
Her blood analyzer scam may have cost people their lives.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/t... [wsj.com]
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Nobody's been able to prove that definitively -- if they have .. provide a non-media, peer-reviewed, reference please. Bad test results can happen from any diagnostics company. You have to prove that Theranos rate was worse and compare death rates. As I understand it her biggest fraud was she told investors the product works, while it was still in development and they were using other companies equipment for the tests. That's not ultra-different than Tesla selling "Full Self Driving" cars under the guise th
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Her blood analyzer scam may have cost people their lives. https://www.wsj.com/articles/t... [wsj.com]
If we’re still describing the harm as “may have”, no wonder her sentence is basically a joke.
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I basically agree that we incarcerate people too long, but I also think we allow them too much communication with outside entities. I think the confinement should be solitary that's really solitary. No talking with anybody, including the jailers. No view of anybody, even the jailers. A nice, comfortable, cell suitable for a monk on retreat. Include an exercise machine. No phone. No video. No speakers. No monitoring. Think of it as a modern day equivalent to marooning alone on a desert island. And
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Re: good (Score:2)
I think the confinement should be solitary that's really solitary. No talking with anybody, including the jailers. No view of anybody, even the jailers. A nice, comfortable, cell suitable for a monk on retreat. Include an exercise machine. No phone. No video. No speakers. No monitoring.
Are you psychotic?
The hope is that prison rehabilitates the criminal, not torture them - if you treated a person like that for several years, they'd come out of and inflict their mental issues on everyone they come into contact with, and would become ruthless if ever faced with the threat of being sent back to such a prison.
You simply can't treat another human like that, FFS!
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The hope is that prison rehabilitates the criminal, not torture them
Maybe in other countries with civilized legal systems, but not in this country. In the US, we have two main priorities: cruelty, particularly for people of color, or poor people; or pimping out convicts for cheap labor, also known colloquially as "slave labor." Rehabilitation doesn't factor into our penal system; unless you consider lip service.
Re: good (Score:2)
Sentence reductions happen all the time, this is nothing no or even unusual.
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We incarcerate people for too long. Now do the other nonviolent inmates.
I'm sorry; did you think there was some sort of principal behind all that?
That movement is just for keeping a lock on a key wedge political constituency. Once that Holmes is not a member of.
No, expect the backers of that movement to be outraged that Holmes got any leniency. (Looks around at slashdot comments, sees confirmation of this.)
Anger fueling clickbait article (Score:5, Insightful)
This is the "Velma Season 2" of clickbait. Something to get your blood boiling so you're get angry and click and comment and engage with all these "fun" advertisements!
Learn to spot these things. Find some good articles and/or videos on media literacy if you haven't already. You're being made into a fool.
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Something to get your blood boiling so you're get angry and click and comment and engage with all these "fun" advertisements!
Ads? I do not see any ads on Slashdot. I don't block them, I just don't run javascript. Noscript+Firefox.
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Low quality reporting (Score:4, Informative)
Rounding, and then rounding again!
Her sentence was previously reduced not by 2 years, but by 4 months less than that. Now, it was reduced by 3.5 months, and the stories claim that it was reduced by 2 years, and then 4 months. Which is not accurate.
However, 11 years and 3 months is 135 months. 85% of that is 114.75 months, so the maximum reduction should be 20.25 months. This latest reduction will likely be partially rolled back, as the 85% requirement is a very solid requirement.
honestly (Score:2)
... this happens all the time with criminals, even violent ones.
I don't think she should get this, but I don't think they should either.
Suckered ??? (Score:1)
Crime doesn't pay (Score:2)
its been a week.... (Score:2)