Lawyers for disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes were due back in San Francisco court Tuesday morning to appeal her fraud conviction.
Some say the appeal is a long shot and unlikely to succeed, but at the same time, it’s potentially Holmes’s last best hope for a new trial.
Holmes’s lawyers will make a case that some of the evidence in her trial was prejudicial and led directly to her guilty verdict.
Holmes, who is not expected to appear in court, is serving her prison sentence in Texas until 2032.
Legal analyst Steven Clark believes Theranos co-founder and Holmes’s former partner Sunny Balwani, who also was convicted on all counts against him, has less to overcome in an appeal.
“I think the Balwani team actually has more to work with, particularly when it comes to the conspiracy counts,” Clark said. “Mr. Balwani was found guilty of conspiring with Ms. Holmes, yet she was found not guilty of conspiring with Mr. Balwani, and that is an inconsistent verdict and may be grounds of an appeal.”
Balwani’s appeal also will be heard.
Regardless of the courts decide on either appeal, Clark says the impact of these conviction remains.
“This is still a reminder to Silicon Valley that the government is going to prosecute these cases very vigorously and continue to send the message that the ‘fake-it-till-you-make-it culture is not going to work if you cross over from self-belief into fraud,” Clark said.
Source: NBC Bay Area
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