Elizabeth Holmes must return $125 million to Rupert Murdoch after Theranos scam

In November, Holmes was sentenced to 11 years in prison for defrauding investors. Credit: Jeff Chiu/AP

Convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes and her Theranos co-founder are to pay Rupert Murdoch $125m (£100m) in damages for their crime, a judge ruled.

39- Ms. Holmes and her former boyfriend and business partner, Ramesh «Sunny» Balwani, are to hand over the sum as part of a $452 million restitution judgment. The money will go to investors whom the couple duped back Ms. Holmes' tech startup, Theranos.

92-year-old Murdoch invested $100 million in the company between 2014 and 2015, while its valuation and publicity were low. growing rapidly.

Other dignitaries, including Henry Kissinger and Bill Clinton, also backed Ms. Holmes' start-up.

The amount Ms. Holmes and Mr. Balwani were asked to pay Mr. Murdoch is the only one. most of the restitution order.

Lawyers for Ms. Holmes and Mr. Balwani have previously argued that the couple has very little money and it is unclear if they will ever be able to pay back the full $425 million.

The restitution order was issued as a judge denied Ms Holmes' request to remain free while she appealed her 11-year prison sentence for fraud. Ms. Holmes argued that her initial trial was unfair.

Judges of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday denied a motion to stay out of jail.

Theranos once It was one of the most celebrated startups in Silicon Valley, valued at over $9 billion at its peak.

The biotech company, founded by Ms. Holmes when she was 19, promised to provide revolutionary technology that could detect hundreds of diseases and other ailments with a few drops of blood.

Ms. Holmes, who became famous for wore black Steve Jobs-inspired turtlenecks, claimed to be a billionaire in her 30s by age.At its peak, Theranos had several high-profile supporters, including Bill Clinton (pictured) and Henry Kissinger. Photo: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

However, the company went bankrupt due to allegations of fraud. A series of reports by the Wall Street Journal, a newspaper owned by Mr. Murdoch, revealed how bosses secretly sent blood samples to traditional labs instead of using Theranos branded blood analyzers.

Mr. Murdoch is said to have subsequently emailed the Wall Street Journal, describing himself as «one of a group of old men taken away by a seemingly gorgeous young woman,» the New York Times reported.

As part of the restitution In addition, Ms. Holmes and Mr. Balwani are to pay back $40 million to pharmacy chain Walgreens, which invested in Theranos in 2013 after agreeing to supply its blood test kits to some of its 9,000 US stores.

Another $14.5 million. is owed to supermarket giant Safeway, which also agreed to become a business partner of Theranos before ultimately pulling it out.

Ms. Holmes was sentenced to 11 years in prison for the scandal last November. Mr Balwani was sentenced to almost 13 years in prison.

In her first interview since the 2016 scandal erupted, Ms Holmes told the New York Times earlier this year that she » played a character that I created.»

She said, «I thought that this way I would be good in business, and I would be taken seriously, and not as a little girl or a girl who does not have good technical ideas.»