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    holmes sentenced

    Disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes begins prison sentence just 90 minutes from her hometown of  Houston

    Steven Devadanam
    May 30, 2023 | 8:51 pm
    Elizabeth Holmes

    Elizabeth Holmes, pictured on November 18, is now incarcerated.

    Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

    A longtime Houstonian is coming home — to jail.

    Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of blood-testing startup Theranos, reported to F.P.C. Bryan, on Tuesday, May 30, per multiple news outlets. She is set to serve 11 years and three months in the women's minimum-security prison located some 90 minutes from Houston hometown.

    According to the the New York Times, the onetime Tanglewood resident arrived at the prison in a Ford Expedition that appeared to be driven by her mother, Noel Holmes. Her father, Christian Holmes, appeared to be inside.

    The Times adds that after some shuffling around, out of the view of the cameras gathered nearby, Holmes entered the facility wearing jeans, glasses and a sweater, and carrying some papers.

    Prior to her arrival in Bryan, Holmes, 39, spent Memorial Day weekend with her family on the beach near her oceanfront San Diego home with her partner Billy Evans and their two children, according to the Daily Mail.

    As CultureMap previously reported, Holmes was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison on November 18, 2002 in San Jose, California following her conviction in January that year for defrauding Theranos investors.

    Actress Amanda Seyfried, who played Holmes in the Hulu series The Dropout, shared her thoughts on the woman she portrayed to great acclaim. “Life’s not fair,” Seyfried noted on Good Morning America on Tuesday, “but in a lot of ways, it’s fair. For her, in particular.”

    Thrust into the spotlight as the new face of white-collar, Silicon Valley fraud, Holmes now serves as a warning to those who might consider a similar path, her sentencing judge made clear.

    “I suppose we step back and ask what is the pathology of fraud? Is it the refusal to accept responsibility or express contrition in any way?" Judge Edward Davila said during the ruling, according to Yahoo! Finance. "Perhaps that is the cautionary tale that will go forward from this case."

    Davila ordered Holmes to turn herself into custody on April 27, 2023.

    Specifically, Holmes' sentence is 11 years and three months in prison, with another three years of supervision after release. Additionally, Holmes and her ex-boyfriend and former Theranos COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani have been ordered to pay $452 million to their fraud victims.

    Once compared to disruptors and innovators Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, Holmes rose to fame by enticing investors with the promise that her Theranos could run hundreds of blood tests via a simple pin prick. Buzz for Theranos grew to the point that Theranos was valued at $9 billion, which made Holmes the world’s first self-made female billionaire.

    Yet, after securing more than $900 million in funding, Theranos was proven to be essentially bogus by the Wall Street Journal in 2015.

    Facing up to 20 years in prison, a tearful Holmes, who is pregnant, addressed the court. "I stand before you taking responsibility for Theranos," she said, per Yahoo. "I loved Theranos. It was my life’s work. My team meant the world to me. They wanted to make a difference in the world. I am devastated by my failings," she said. "Every day for the past years, I have felt deep pain for the people…those people who believe in us and those patients. I worked so hard to serve. I gave everything I had to try to to build...Theranos. Looking back, there are so many things I would do differently. I tried to realize my dream too quickly."

    Holmes is the subject of the aforementioned series, The Dropout, which centers on her early life in Houston, where she grew up in Tanglewood and attended St. John's School. Her father's layoff from Enron is presented as clearly an inciting incident in her life. As The Dropout depicts, Holmes would meet boyfriend/partner Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, drop out of Stanford, and launch Theranos.

    One of the most memorable lines in the miniseries comes when a young Holmes plainly states her goals at a family gathering. "I wanna be a billionaire," she said plainly — a memorable and clearly prophetic statement.

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    hottest headlines of 2025

    Houston's richest residents, best suburbs, and more top city news in 2025

    Amber Heckler
    Dec 22, 2025 | 3:45 pm
    Museum of Fine Arts, Houston gala 2025
    Photo by Wilson Parish
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    Editor’s note: As 2025 comes to a close, we're looking back at the stories that defined Houston this year. In our City Life section, readers will notice several of our local universities earned high praise from prestigious global and national publications. Houston's sprawling suburbs continued to skyrocket in popularity for their livability and safety, and no top-10 list is complete without mentioning the city's wealthiest residents. Read on for the top 10 Houston City Life stories of 2025.

    1. 2 Houston universities named among world’s best in 2026 rankings. These two high-performing local institutions – Rice University and University of Houston – are in a class of their own, according to the QS World University Rankings 2026. QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) compiles the prestigious list each year; the 2026 edition includes more than 1,500 universities from around the world.

    2. Richard Kinder is Houston's richest billionaire in 2025, Forbes says. The Kinder Morgan chairman is the 11th richest Texas resident right now, and ranks as the 108th richest American. Kinder also dethroned Tilman Fertitta to claim the title as the wealthiest Houstonian.

    3. 2 Houston neighbors shine as top-10 best places to live in the U.S. Pearland and League City, respectively, claimed No. 3 and No. 6 in U.S. News & World Report's annual "Best Places to Live in the U.S." rankings. The 2025-2026 rankings examined 250 U.S. cities based on five livability indexes: Quality of life, value, desirability, job market, and net migration.

    4. 5 Houston suburbs deemed best places to retire in 2026 by U.S. News. The Woodlands and Spring should be on the lookout for an influx of retirees next year, U.S. News predicts. Three more Houston-area neighbors also ranked among the top 25 best places to retire in America.

    5. Activist group calls out Houston highway as a 'freeway without a future'. A May 2025 report from Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) included Houston's Interstate 45 expansion on its list of highways with infrastructure that is "nearing the end of its functional life." CNU claims further expansion of Houston's highway system could eventually lead to the loss of the city's bayous, while also diminishing the remaining flood-absorbing land.

    6. 10 things to know about America's first Ismaili Center opening in Houston. After nearly 20 years in the making, the long-awaited Ismaili Center, Houston finally opened its doors to the public. The 11-acre site was painstakingly designed and constructed to offer indoor and outdoor public spaces for all Houstonians to enjoy, connect, and engage.

    7. Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta asking $192 million for superyacht. Fertitta, who owns the Houston Rockets and restaurant and hospitality conglomerate Landry's, decided to sell his 252-foot yacht, named Boardwalk, to make room for an even larger superyacht he is expected to receive in April 2026. Among numerous luxurious amenities, Boardwalk also features a helipad.

    8. 2 Houston neighbors rank among America's safest suburbs in 2025. Spring came in at No. 19 and West University Place followed at No. 21 in SmartAsset's August 2025 study, which is the first time the two Houston suburbs have made it into the top 25.

    9. Houston is one of America's most overpriced cities, study finds. This likely isn't a surprise to some Houstonians. The study, conducted by Highland Cabinetry, said Houston "struggles with heavy pollution and underwhelming income levels."

    10. 9 Houston universities make U.S. News' 2025 list of top grad schools. Among the newcomers this year are Houston Christian University and Texas Southern University. HCU's graduate education school ranks No. 21 in Texas, and TSU has the 10th best law school in the state.

    houstonhot headlinescity liferichard kindertilman fertittasuburbsmost popular stories
    news/city-life
    popular

    most read posts

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