Inmates eagerly await fraudster Elizabeth Holmes ahead of prison arrival: ‘I want to be her friend’
Convicted Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes’s likely arrival at a federal prison in Texas on Tuesday has some inmates reportedly ready to greet her with open arms.
Holmes, convicted on four counts of fraud and conspiracy last year, was ordered to to be housed at the Bryan Federal Prison Camp in Texas — also known as FPC Bryan.
The mother of two young children will share a bunk bed in her prison cell with at least three other women inmates at the minimum security facility when she begins serving her 11-year sentence.
“Some people are like ‘I want to be her friend’,” Tasha Wade, an inmate at the facility, told The Wall Street Journal.
“But other people are like, ‘I can’t believe that’s all she got for taking all that money,’” said Wade, who was convicted of defrauding her former boss by taking vacations and paying for cosmetic procedures.
Another inmate reportedly recounted a joke told by a corrections officer who said they were looking forward to making Holmes scrub pans.
Inmates at Bryan have also been doing their homework on the fallen billionaire.
A copy of “Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup” — the book by Wall Street Journal investigative reporter John Carreyrou which documents Holmes’ rise and fall — was checked out of the prison library and not returned, according to The Journal.
Holmes, 39, will be surrounded by some other infamous inmates, including reality TV star Jen Shah and Jenna Ryan, who was convicted for participating in the Jan. 6 riots at the US Capitol.
Who is Elizabeth Holmes and why is she going to jail?
Elizabeth Holmes is the founder and former CEO of Theranos — and a convicted fraudster.
In 2018, Holmes, along with Theranos’ former president Ramesh Balwani, encouraged doctors and patients to use the company’s blood testing services when they knew Theranos was incapable of consistently producing accurate and reliable results, according to the indictment.
The Securities and Exchange Commission pressed fraud charges against Holmes in March 2018, accusing Holmes of defrauding investors of more than $700 million through made-up claims.
Theranos and 34-year-old Holmes ran “an elaborate, years-long fraud in which they exaggerated or made false statements about the company’s technology, business and financial performance,” according to the SEC.
In January 2022, the mother-of-two was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit fraud and three counts of committing fraud to individual investors, totaling more than $140 million.
Holmes reported to the women’s prison camp FPC Bryan in Texas on Tuesday to begin her 11-year sentence after attempting to overturn her conviction.
Ryan told The Journal that Holmes will need to be strategic in making friends behind bars.
“The girls are sweet, some of the guards were nice, some were mean,” Ryan said.
“It is like a ‘Survivor’ episode,” she said, adding: “You have to make alliances, you have to play your cards right.”
Shah, who starred on “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” began her six-year sentence at the facility this year after being convicted for taking part in a telemarketing fraud scheme.
Holmes will go from living in a multimillion-dollar mansion to a cramped cell with at least three other inmates.
US District Judge Edward Davila, the federal jurist appointed to the bench by then-President Barack Obama, recommended that Holmes serve her sentence at the Texas prison, which is located about 100 miles northwest of her native Houston.
She had been living in the San Francisco Bay Area while seeking multiple appeals of her conviction.
Once hailed as America’s first female self-made billionaire with a net worth of $4.5 billion, Holmes will only be allowed to carry a maximum of $40 during her incarceration.
The women’s-only prison houses approximately 900 white-collar, non-violent female inmates who have been convicted of crimes such as embezzlement, securities fraud, mail fraud, insurance fraud, and loan fraud.
Upon her arrival, Holmes will likely be escorted to the laundry room to receive a short-sleeved khaki uniforms, according to current and former inmates who spoke to The Journal.
Traditionally, new inmates are assigned to do a 90-day work stint in the kitchen, where the job pays 12 cents an hour.
According to the Prison Insight web site, inmates at FPC Bryan live in both open dormitories and rooms that house between four and 10 inmates each.
Holmes will be awakened at 6 a.m. each day of her sentence and be made to make her own bed, according to an inmate handbook.
She will also have to keep her cell clean by mopping floors and taking out the trash.
Holmes, like all FPC Bryan inmates, will be required to either take educational courses or be assigned a work role such as carpenter, clerk, janitor, tutor, or kitchen prep.
Inmates can also opt to work in a call center or in catalog distribution.
Salaries at the facility range from $0.12 per house to $1.15 per hour.
The prison imposes a dress code that prohibits inmates from wearing revealing shorts, halter tops, bathing suits, see-through garments of any type, crop tops, and low-cut blouses or dresses.
Inmates are also prohibited from wearing leotards, spandex, miniskirts, backless tops, and sleeveless garments.
Holmes will also be barred from having a cell phone.
Inmates at FPC Bryan will have a choice of “regular, heart healthy and no-flesh dietary options,” according to the prison handbook.
Holmes will have the option of taking part in recreational activities, including football and table tennis games.
There’s also an on-site gym for physical fitness as well as intramural activities and music programs.
Holmes won’t be the only high-profile inmate at FPC Bryan.
Holmes’ last-ditch legal appeal to have her conviction overturned was rejected by a federal judge.
Davila announced Holmes’ new prison start date after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals shot down Holmes’ attempt to remain free while fighting her conviction.
Davila jointly ordered Holmes and her former lieutenant Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani to pay $452 million in restitution to investors who bought into her claims of a revolutionary diagnostic tool using a finger prick.
A $125 million chunk of that payout will go to Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of News Corp, which owns The Post.
The federal government had previously asked for more than $800 million in restitution, according to court filings.
With Post Wires
