Elizabeth Holmes, the notorious swindler from Silicon Valley, seems to be plotting a return to the business world while serving her ten-year term in a Texas prison camp. Even though she’s only been incarcerated for three years, the founder of Theranos is reportedly aiding her husband in securing around $18 million for a new blood testing venture.
A biotech insider voiced skepticism about Holmes’s aspirations. “It’s shocking that she believes she’d be taken seriously again in medical and biotech circles,” they shared.
Holmes’s latest endeavor, dubbed Haemanthus, aims to innovate medical testing—much like her previous company that was valued at $9 billion before its fraudulent practices were exposed. The company intends to harness AI technology and lasers to identify diseases in blood samples, although it hasn’t officially launched yet.
Critics are already dismissing the new venture. The insider remarked, “It’s a joke,” pointing out the absence of scientific advisors or any peer-reviewed studies backing their claims. They likened it to a repeat of the Theranos debacle.
The startup is being led by Holmes’s husband, Billy Evans, who is 33 years old. So far, they’ve managed to raise about $3.5 million from friends and family, along with $15 million from other investors. Although Haemanthus claims Holmes has no formal role, insiders suggest she’s been providing counsel to Evans from behind bars.
Holmes recently attracted renewed attention over the Labor Day weekend when a clip promoting a film about her life was released. In a teaser, a seemingly unbothered Holmes insists, “I’m not deceiving you. I’m just engaging with you as a human.”
Through the ongoing legal issues and even now, she has maintained her innocence, despite the overwhelming evidence against her.
The fundraising efforts for Haemanthus haven’t had universal approval from investors. Notable figures, such as venture capitalist Jim Breyer and billionaire Michael Dell, passed on the opportunity to invest, citing similar reasons for their previous rejection of Theranos.
Holmes originally founded Theranos in 2003, where she was once hailed as a potential successor to Steve Jobs. She raised billions under the promise of a device that could conduct numerous tests from a tiny blood sample, but it turned out the technology was nonexistent. Investors were misled through staged demonstrations, while actual blood samples were analyzed by conventional lab equipment. Major partnerships with companies like Walgreens ended after the tests produced dangerously inaccurate results.
After a 2015 expose in the Wall Street Journal unraveled the truth, Theranos ceased operations three years later. Holmes and her ex-boyfriend, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, who now faces a 13-year sentence, share joint responsibility for $452 million in restitution. Last year, Holmes’s appeal was denied, with the Ninth Circuit upholding the evidence of her deception.
In the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, where she shares space with other high-profile inmates, Holmes works for a mere 31 cents an hour, assisting other women with resume writing. Reportedly, she has also been teaching French to her fellow inmates and had to modify her vegan diet due to health issues.
Interestingly, her presence online hardly reflects her incarceration. Since August, her X account has been active again under the humorous tagline “Mostly my words, posted by others.” One recent post humorously mused about her caffeine state, saying, “Sometimes I can’t tell whether I’m under caffeinated or over caffeinated. My solution is usually to have another cup of coffee and see what happens.”
Another post from last September reiterated her previous commitment to Theranos’s work on inflammation testing, showing that she hasn’t fully moved on from her past endeavors.
Next month, the documentary titled “You Can See Everything” will be released. It captures Holmes just weeks before she started her prison sentence, sharing her perspective on her life’s story and the events surrounding Theranos, which she claims are often misunderstood.
Since her imprisonment, Evans has taken the reins of her public persona, tweeting on her behalf and engaging with film executives. Early feedback on the documentary suggests it overlooks her guilt or innocence, focusing more on her steadfast performance as a public figure.
A source stated, “She shows no empathy for those harmed by Theranos’s tests and avoids taking responsibility for their suffering,” painting a stark picture of Holmes’s mindset.
