A judge has ruled that it is appropriate to postpone the sentencing to Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the failed company that tests blood for Theranos and to hear evidence concerning alleged misconduct by the prosecutor.
U.S. District Court Judge Edward Davila pushed back Holmes’ sentencing hearing Monday initially scheduled for Oct. 17; instead, he will have an “limited” trial on the same day.
Holmes is found guilty on four charges of fraud back in the month January may be sentenced later the next year. Holmes is facing a maximum of 20 years prison and an amount of $250,000 in fines for each of the counts.
Holmes attorneys asked for an extension of the trial last month, following the fact that the former Theranos Lab director Adam Rosendorff was reported to have regretted his testimony at the trial, and claimed that the government had tried try to create a situation that made everyone “look poor.”
According to the court’s filing Rosendorff was at Holmes the Holmes’ residence in August. There, he spoke to her business associate Billy Evans, who relayed the conversation to defense lawyers. Rosendorff was among the prosecution’s most prominent witnesses, has provided a sworn declaration of his standing on his testimony.
The judge described the allegations against federal prosecutor “limited but significant,” declaring that he would question Rosendorff as the “allegation is that the federal government could have been involved in the commission of misconduct.”
“What the court would like to know is: the doctor. Rosendorff, did believe that the government has manipulated during the preparation, or in any way regarding what you testified to?” Davila stated when discussing the topics that the evidentiary hearing will be about. “What I’d like to know is, did your attorney tell your story in the right way?”
In January, twelve jurors decided that Holmes guilty of three charges of wire fraud as well as the one charge of conspiring to perpetrate wire fraud. Holmes was acquitted of the other four counts, and the jury declared a mistrial on three more charges of wire fraud.
Prosecutors claimed Holmes gave false and misleading statements to investors regarding the development of the device that would perform a array of blood tests, using only a fingerprick.
Holmes’ lawyers said they never believed that she was in the process to defraud investors at the highly-publicized startup.
Theranos was dissolved in September 2018, just a few days in the wake of Holmes was indicted as well as the former Theranos COO and president Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani.
Balwani who was Holmes the former love interest of Holmes Balwani was found guilty of the entire 12 counts of fraud in July. He will be sentenced on November. 15.