Disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is praising President Donald Trump after securing an early release from prison amid her over 11-year sentence for fraud.
“We are winning,” Holmes, 42, wrote via X on Friday, September 25, while quote-tweeting a promotional video made by Donald Trump’s administration, touting the commander-in-chief’s so-called wins amid a historic low approval rating, rising gas and diesel prices, an ongoing war in Iran and numerous food recalls.
Holmes’ cryptic post comes just days after she was reportedly granted an early release from the minimum-security Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, where she was serving time alongside late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s girlfriend and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell and The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City’s Jen Shah. (Shah, 52, completed her 6-and-a-half year sentence for wire fraud on August 28.)
According to a Tuesday, September 22, letter sent to victims of Holmes’ crime, viewed by The New York Times, the Theranos founder is scheduled to be transferred from the minimum-security prison to a halfway house next year. According to the letter, also reported on by NBC News, Holmes will be moved to the Austin Transitional Center in Del Valle, Texas, on August 23, 2027. (The Department of Justice is required by law to notify victims of crime of case developments through letters and emails, per NBC News.)
The former founder was found guilty of defrauding millions of investors via her failed blood-testing company. She was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison in 2022, and ordered to pay 12 victims a total of $452 million in restitution. (Her business partner, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, was sentenced to nearly 13 years in federal prison and ordered to also pay a share of the $452 million in restitution to their victims.)
“Seems like a gift,” Alan Eisenman, one of Holmes’ victims, told NBC News of her scheduled release from prison and transfer to the halfway house, adding that he has yet to receive “a penny” of restitution money from Holmes.
“She was a liar back in 2006, and she’s a liar today,” Eisenman also told the outlet.
Holmes’ initial sentence has already been reduced, after a federal San Jose judge cut her sentence from its original 11 years and 3 months to 123 months, or a little over 10 years. The judge cited a retroactive sentencing guideline change for first-time offenders with clean records as the reason for the sentence reduction. The court also determined that her investors — many extremely wealthy — did not experience any direct financial hardship as a result of her fraud.
She received additional reductions in her sentence for good conduct and behavior under the First Step Act, a bipartisan federal crime justice reform law signed by President Trump in 2018. The law aims to reduce recidivism, reform harsh federal sentencing laws and improve the federal prison conditions nationwide.
In April, Housewife Shah opened up about her experience serving time alongside Holmes, revealing the pair grew close.
“I did make some close friends there. Lizzie and I are good friends,” Shah told People in an April 1 interview. “When you come through as a high profile, there are just certain things that you are both dealing with naturally, and you naturally come together in those instances.”
She continued, “We lived in the same unit for the last, maybe, 10 months or so when I was there. You are assigned to different bathrooms. We were assigned the same bathroom. If someone in your bathroom does not clean it or something like that, you get a strike. If your bathroom gets three strikes, you have to do poop duty.”
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