Elizabeth Holmes, the Theranos founder that was convicted of fraud in 2022, bought a one-way ticket to Mexico in January, right after the conviction and made an “attempt to flee the country,” prosecutors said in a new court document filing on Friday.
Last January, Holmes was convicted of defrauding investors while running Theranos, a failed startup blood testing company. This past November, she was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for her crimes. She has since appealed the conviction and will start her prison sentence this spring due to her being pregnant.
This claim that she tried to flee the country came to light when prosecutors argued Holmes should be serving her sentence now and not living on an estate that reportedly has $13,000 of monthly expenses for upkeep.
According to CNN Business, the filing states prosecutors argue Holmes has not shown convincing evidence that she is not a flight risk, as her lawyers have stated, and used the alleged 2022 incident to support their concerns that she could pose such a risk.
“The government became aware on January 23, 2022, that Defendant Holmes booked an international flight to Mexico departing on January 26, 2022, without a scheduled return trip. Only after the government raised this unauthorized flight with defense counsel was the trip canceled,” the court filing states.
In the filing, prosecutors say they expect Holmes to have a defense for buying the one-way ticket. They believe she would “reply that she did not, in fact, leave the country as scheduled” but said “it is difficult to know with certainty” what she would have done “had the government not intervened.”
Additionally, prosecutors say following her sentencing, “the incentive to flee has never been higher” and Holmes “has the means to act on that incentive.”
TheWrap reached out to Holmes’ attorney, who has yet to respond.
The Associated Press reports, in an email responding to prosecutors’ concerns about the planned trip, last January, they said Holmes had booked it before the jury’s verdict, to attend a wedding in Mexico.
“Given the verdict, she does not plan to take the trip and therefore did not provide notice, seek permission, or request access to her passport (which the government has) for the trip,” wrote Lance Wade, one of Holmes’ attorneys.