Holmes Faces Uphill Battle Fighting 11-Year Prison Term
November 21, 2022, Law360
Amanda Kramer's commentary was included in a Law360 article about Elizabeth Holmes' sentence for defrauding investors of Theranos, a blood testing startup.
Amanda questioned whether Holmes' sentence foretells long prison sentences for CEOs and other executives in future fraud cases remains to be seen.
She noted that the sentences of former WorldCom CEO Bernard J. Ebbers, who received 25 years for one of the largest accounting scandals in history, and Bernie Madoff, who received a 150-year sentence for his infamous multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, set "high-water marks at the time of their respective sentencings, which isn't the case for Holmes."
Amanda said Holmes' apparent lack of greed compared to the other fraudsters who cashed in their shares to support their luxury lifestyles may have been one of mitigating factors in her favor that set her apart from other convicted CEOs. But the judge also had to weigh those factors against Holmes' apparent willingness to exploit the credibility she garnered as a young, female CEO success story to further the fraud.
"Every case is different, but what are the odds that we'll see another CEO featured on the covers of Fortune and Forbes, whose claims of developing transformative technology are found by a jury to have been lies?" Amanda said.
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