Heather Somerville
Theranos Inc. founder Elizabeth Holmes is due back in court this month to make the case that she deserves a new trial based on her allegations that the government manipulated testimony from a key witness who testified against her.
The hearing was granted Monday by the judge who presided over Holmes’s monthslong criminal-fraud trial . The ruling represents a victory for Holmes in her quest to secure a new trial nine months after a jury convicted her on four counts of wire fraud and conspiracy. Her attorneys have argued that new evidence pertaining to the witness, former Theranos lab director Adam Rosendorff, shows the government presented misleading testimony that may have influenced the jury’s decision.
U.S. District Judge Edward Davila has set the hearing for Oct. 17, when her sentencing had originally been scheduled. Sentencing, if the judge doesn’t grant a new trial, would be delayed at least into November.
The post-trial hearing further prolongs the spectacle-laden criminal-fraud saga that began to play out in court with a jury trial over a year ago. Holmes was charged with 11 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy for running a yearslong scheme at Theranos, the defunct blood-testing startup she founded and ran as chief executive until 2018. In January, a jury convicted her on four counts of fraud for deceiving investors. Her one-time business and romantic partner, former Theranos President Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, was convicted of 12 fraud counts in July. He is set to be sentenced in November.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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