Elizabeth Holmes surrendered herself at a federal prison camp in Texas on Tuesday to begin serving an 11-year sentence for a fraud and conspiracy conviction stemming from her sham blood-testing startup Theranos.
Footage showed Holmes, wearing jeans and a brown top, entering the minimum-security federal facility in Bryan around 1:30 p.m.
Holmes lost her attempt to stay out of jail while she tries to appeal her January conviction. She’ll be separated from her husband, Billy Evans, and her 1-year-old son and 3-month-old daughter, with whom she spent the long holiday weekend at their home near San Diego.
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Federal Prison Camp Bryan is located about 100 miles from Houston, where Holmes spent time before attending Stanford and dropping out to form Theranos, which sold investors on a revolutionary blood-testing technology that never actually worked.
The camp also houses celebrity inmate Jennifer Shah, the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star, who is doing time for a telemarketing scam. Hot Pockets heiress Michelle Janavs also spent time in the prison in 2020 for her participation in the “Varsity Blues” college admission scandal.
The prison houses around 600 women, who sleep in dormitory-style bunk beds or in four-to-eight-person cells, according to the BBC. Inmates can earn between 12 cents and $1.15 per hour for jobs in food service and factory work.
Holmes has also been ordered to pay back $452 million to Theranos investors but recently told The New York Times she could not afford to pay her legal bills.
Her former business partner, Sunny Balwani, reported to a California prison last month to begin a 13-year sentence on wire fraud charges.
Holmes’ surrender marks the end of a stunning rise and fall from grace that was the basis for best-selling books, podcasts, and a television series. At the height of her success, Holmes’ company was valued at $9 billion and counted Rupert Murdoch and Oracle founder Larry Ellison as investors.
Holmes enjoyed the spotlight for her age—she was 19 when she founded Theranos—and for being a woman in a male-dominated industry. She appeared on the cover of Forbes and Fortune and was named Glamour’s 2015 “Woman of the Year.”
Things began to go sideways that same year when a Wall Street Journal investigation revealed Holmes was making significant misrepresentations about her product to the public. (Among other things, the company was only using its machines for 15 of the 240 blood tests it offered.) She and Balwani were indicted on wire fraud charges in 2018.
Earlier this month, the Times reported she was still working on health-related ideas and would continue to do so from prison.
“I still dream about being able to contribute in that space,” she said. “I still feel the same calling to it as I always did and I still think the need is there.”
