NEED TO KNOW
- Elizabeth Holmes has asked the Trump administration for a reduced prison sentence
- The disgraced Theranos founder filed the request in 2025 and it is still pending as of January 2026, according to the Office of the Pardon Attorney’s website
- Holmes, 41, was sentenced to 11.25 years in federal prison in 2022 after being convicted of three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud
Disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has asked the Trump administration for a commuted prison sentence.
Holmes, 41, was handed down an 11.25-year sentence in November 2022 after being convicted of three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The Office of the Pardon Attorney’s website states Holmes filed the request in 2025, and it is still pending as of January 2026. Further details were not immediately known.
Holmes began serving her sentence at Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas in May 2023 following a series of delays. Her sentence has since been reduced for good behavior, and she is expected to be released on Dec. 31, 2031, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.
PEOPLE has reached out to Holmes’ attorney for comment. The White House declined to comment.
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Holmes had hoped to appeal her conviction, but it was denied in early 2025. She was convicted alongside Sunny Balwani, her ex-boyfriend and former president of the now-defunct billion-dollar blood-testing company. Balwani’s 13-year prison sentence was also upheld on appeal.
Holmes founded Theranos at 19 years old in 2003 and rose to prominence as its CEO in 2014. The company was found to have misled investors by claiming its technology could perform hundreds of medical tests using just a few drops of blood.
During her trial, Holmes’ defense attorneys sought to portray the former CEO as naïve, saying she didn’t mean to defraud investors. But prosecutors said Holmes was aware of her actions.
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In her first prison interview, Holmes maintained her innocence and told PEOPLE in February 2025 that being apart from her two young children and partner Billy Evans “shatters her world.”
“The people I love the most have to walk away as I stand here, a prisoner, and my reality sinks in,” she said.
“It kills me to put my family through pain the way I do,” Holmes added. “But when I look back on my life, and these angels that have come into it, I can get through anything. It makes me want to fight for all of it.”
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