Former Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes (L) leaves the Robert F. Peckham U.S. Federal Court on June 28, 2019 in San Jose, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Seven months and nine days from now Elizabeth Holmes will face charges that she defrauded investors of her blood-testing company Theranos.
That was the decision on Tuesday from U.S. District Court Judge Edward Davila, who set March 9, 2021 as the start of jury selection for Holmes’ trial, which has been delayed due to coronavirus.
“I wish you good health and I know we’ll be seeing each other again soon,” Davila said at the end of a 30-minute hearing via Zoom.
Holmes, wearing black, sat silently throughout the hearing against a white curtain. Her co-defendant Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani was present in a separate location wearing a black suit and light blue tie.
Last week, prosecutors filed a third superseding indictment – hitting the Stanford dropout with a twelfth fraud charge relating to a patient’s blood test.
Holmes and her legal team are fighting the new charge claiming the indictment violates her rights because the grand jury that handled it was created during the pandemic.
In a motion filed last week, Holmes’ team has requested Davila grant them access to the jury selection records.
Prosecutors fired back, urging the court to deny Holmes’ request, saying she’s asking for too much by suggesting “without basis” that the jurors were improperly selected.
The government’s motion says Holmes has requested “21 broad categories of documents” about the selection process.
Prior to her 2018 downfall, Holmes was named the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire and Theranos was privately valued at $9 billion.
A who’s who of politics is expected to be called as witnesses in her high-profile trial, including former Theranos board members and investors like former U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and media titan Rupert Murdoch.
Holmes and Balwani are charged with nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud with the now-defunct blood-testing company.
They each face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
