The sentencing of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has been delayed.
The decision was made by US District Judge Edward Davila on Monday. Mr Davida will review claims raised by Holmes’s attorneys that the prosecution allegedly engaged in misconduct by forcing a key witness in her initial trial to give testimony that made “everyone look bad.”
In an early September filing, Holmes requested a new trial and stated that former Theranos lab director Adam Rosendorff visited her home on 8 August and told her partner that prosecutors had twisted his testimony.
The request was made eight months after Holmes was found guilty of conspiracy and defrauding Theranos investors for her role in the collapse of the blood testing company she founded after dropping out of Stanford University in 2003. She faces a maximum sentence of 20 years for every charge
The sentencing trial had been scheduled for 17 October. Instead, Mr Davila will conduct a hearing to review evidence by the defence, and if grounds to delay the sentencing are found, it could be postponed to January.
According to the filing in September, Mr Rosendroff told Holmes’s partner Billy Evans that “he tried to answer the questions honestly at Ms. Holmes’ trial, but the government tried to make everyone look bad.”
Mr Rosendroff’s testified at Holmes’s trial that he alerted Holmes to issues in the Theranos lab and faced an intense, days-long cross-examination from Holmes’s attorneys who noted that Mr Rosendroff worked in several other labs that had regulatory issues. Notably, Mr Rosendroff was also a source for the Wall Street Journal article that precipitated Theranos’ demise in October of 2015.
Holmes was found guilty in January of three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for each count of fraud. Ms Holmes’ business partner and ex-romantic partner Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani was also convicted of fraud earlier this year.
