Elizabeth Holmes reports to prison in Texas to begin 11-year sentence for Theranos fraud 

Elizabeth Holmes has reported to a federal prison in Texas to begin her 11-year sentence for conning the world with her health technology startup.

Theranos founder Holmes, 39, smiled as she arrived at a federal facility in Bryan, on Tuesday, flanked by officials. She wore a beige sweater, blue jeans, and glasses. 

The casual outfit she reported to prison in was a far cry from the poised red-lipped, black turtleneck tech CEO she once was during her blood-testing hoax heyday. 

Married mother-of-two Holmes laughed and smiled while talking to her handlers as she walked into the minimum-security federal women’s prison camp – which is 100 miles northwest of her hometown, Houston. 

She was dropped off in a Ford SUV by her parents and husband Billy – who said their goodbyes as she made her last walk as a free woman for the foreseeable future. 

Her long-awaited arrival comes more than a year after a jury convicted her on four felony counts of fraud and conspiracy in January 2022. She was sentenced in November after defrauding investors out of $945 million. 

Elizabeth Holmes was seen smiling and laughing with her handlers as she arrived to prison – where she is now federal prisoner number 24965-111. She was sentenced in November after defrauding investors out of $945 million

The casual outfit she reported to prison in was a far cry from the poised red-lipped, black turtleneck tech CEO she once was during her blood-testing hoax heyday

Billy, her husband, is seen getting back into the car which dropped her off at prison. She looked emotional as she said goodbye to her family, including her mother and father, who are standing in black next to her

She smiled as she spoke with her handlers on Tuesday morning. Holmes spent her final ‘free’ Memorial Day Weekend for the foreseeable future with her family 

Holmes arrives at the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas. The minimum-security federal women’s prison camp is 100 miles northwest of her hometown, Houston

The disgraced tech CEO wore a casual outfit as she smiled and walked into prison

She arrived at prison with her husband, Billy, who was seen waving her off from the vehicle. Her parents stood by her side before she made her walk inside.

Billy’s mother and father took baby William and newborn Invicta over to the townhouse, where they are going to be living with their father, around 7pm on Monday to spend the night. 

It’s the first night of many that Holmes – now federal prisoner number 24965-111 – won’t be tucking her kids into bed.

Just about the same time Elizabeth was reporting to prison in Bryan, Texas, on May 30, 1,400 miles away, Billy’s mother took their two kids to Seaworld in San Diego, California.

Her new residence is hardly Alcatraz and the minimum security prison has instead been dubbed ‘Club Fed’, where inmates aren’t even required to sleep in cells. 

Among her possible ‘dorm’ mates is fellow fraudster and one-time Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah, who reported to Bryan in February to start a six-and-a-half-year sentence for her part in a telemarketing scam. 

Bryan prisoners share four-person rooms with bunk beds in a dormitory-style set-up – and are even allowed to buy hobby items including crochet needles from the commissary at $1.30 a pop. 

The convicted fraudster spent her final days of freedom soaking up the sun with her family – without any hope or possibility of another last-minute reprieve that allowed her to dodge prison for a month. 

She will see out her jail sentence out of state – miles away from the $9million San Diego mansion she shares with partner Billy Evans and their two children. 

U.S. District Judge Edward Davila set her revised prison-reporting date to May 30, meaning she was allowed to spend Memorial Day Weekend with her family before her spell in prison. 

On Monday, exclusive DailyMail.com photos showed Holmes savoring her last days as a free woman with a wholesome trip to the beach near their oceanfront home, while being supported by her mother and father who have been staying with her ahead of her sentence.

Theranos founder Holmes, 39, showed up on Tuesday, wearing a beige sweater and blue jeans

Holmes got out of the car as she made her final walk of freedom for the next 11 years

She wore glasses, her hair down, and a casual outfit as she reported for jail

She will see out her jail sentence out of state – miles away from the $9million San Diego mansion she shares with partner Billy Evans and their two children

Her long-awaited arrival comes more than a year after a jury convicted her on four felony counts of fraud and conspiracy in January 2022

On Saturday her parents were seen taking care of household errands by stocking up on groceries at a local Whole Foods Market, while Holmes and Evans spent quality family time at Tide Park, a secluded beach two miles north of their home. 

Holmes’ young children will have to spend much of their childhood without their mother. 

The disgraced tech CEO had originally been ordered to begin her prison sentence on April 27, but managed to buy an extra four weeks with her family after scoring a reprieve with a last-minute legal maneuver.

The mother-of-two temporarily avoided reporting to prison after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to stay her date while she attempts to appeal her conviction.

The legal tactic deployed by Holmes mirrored a move made in March by her former lover and subordinate, Ramesh ‘Sunny’ Balwani, to avoid a prison reporting date of March 16.

After the Ninth Circuit rejected his appeal three weeks later, Davila set a new reporting date of April 20 for Balwani.

The same judge set a new prison-reporting date for Holmes on May 16 after a federal appeals court eventually rejected her bid to remain out of prison while she attempts to overturn her January 2022 conviction on four felony counts of fraud and conspiracy.

The punishment also includes a $452million restitution bill that Davila ordered Holmes to pay in a separate ruling issued earlier this month.

Holmes’s lawyers asked Davila to approve the May 30 prison reporting time to give her two weeks to sort out several issues, including child care for her kids.

Elizabeth Holmes spent her last Memorial Day weekend as a free woman soaking up the sun with her family at the beach in San Diego

Elizabeth Holmes and partner Billy Evans with their two children William, 2, and 3 month old daughter Invicta walk back from the beach in San Diego, California

The 39-year-old convicted fraudster will finally report to a federal lockup on Tuesday, after managing to delay her start date last month 

Holmes, in the weeks before she reported to prison, looked comfy and casual wearing an all-black designer Alo sweat suit, sandals, and an oversized straw hat. She carried her newborn in her arms, covering her with a swaddling blanket

Holmes had once modelled herself as the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs and won widespread acclaim – including from Harvard University and Time magazine – for a phoney technology which she claimed would revolutionize blood-testing methods by using miraculously tiny volumes of blood, such as from a finger prick.

The mom-of-two started Theranos when she dropped out of Stanford University at the age of 19. 

She had scooped in nearly a billion dollars in funding from some of the world’s biggest pockets: Venture capitalist titans including Tim Draper, Donald Lucas and Dixon Doll; wealthy heirs to the founders of Amway, Walmart and Cox Communications; and heavyweights of tech and media such as Larry Ellison and Rupert Murdoch.

Before those lies were uncovered in a series of explosive articles in The Wall Street Journal beginning in October 2015, Holmes had raised a staggering amount of money from some of the biggest names in business and tech.

Holmes’ stake in Theranos at one point catapulted her paper wealth to $4.5 billion. 

She never sold any of her stock in the company, though trial evidence left no doubt she reveled in the trappings of fame and fortune – so much so that she and the father of her children, William ‘Billy’ Evans, lived on a palatial Silicon Valley estate during the trial. 

Elizabeth Holmes has reported to the minimum security prison camp at Bryan, Texas

Holmes is picture in the documentary ‘The Inventor: Out For Blood In Silicon Valley’, which detailed one of the biggest frauds in Silicon Valley

Theranos Founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes, then 29, is photographed holding a nanotainer of blood at Theranos headquarters in Palo Alto, California, June 30, 2014 

Elizabeth Holmes is photographed for Forbes Magazine on September 22, 2014

Elizabeth Holmes moves through security while on her way to court on March 17, 2023 in San Jose, California

In 2015, President Bill Clinton invited Holmes to speak at a panel for the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting alongside  Alibaba’s Executive Chairman Jack Ma 

The theory that Holmes was running an elaborate scam was buttressed by trial evidence documenting her efforts to prevent the Journal’s investigation from being published. 

That campaign compelled John Carreyrou – the reporter responsible for those bombshell stories – to attend court and position himself in Holmes’ line of vision when she took the witness stand. 

Holmes also signed off on surveillance aimed at intimidating Theranos employees who helped uncover the flaws with the blood-testing technology. 

The whistleblowers included Tyler Shultz, the grandson of former Secretary of State George Shultz, whom Holmes befriended and persuaded to join the Theranos board. 

Holmes’ supporters still contend she always had good intentions and was unfairly scapegoated by the Justice Department. 

They insist she simply deployed the same over-the-top promotion tactics as many other tech executives, including Elon Musk, who has repeatedly made misleading statements about the capabilities of Tesla’s self-driving cars. 

Holmes steadfastly maintained her innocence during seven often-riveting days of testimony in her own defense – a spectacle that caused people to line up shortly after midnight to secure one of the few dozen seats available in the San Jose courtroom. 

But she was ultimately found guilty for the crimes. 

Elizabeth Holmes, pictured left in her heyday in 2014, spoke with a terse, deep voice. But now she wants to go by Liz after being found guilty of fraud. She’s pictured right in court in 2022

In her final weeks of prison, many believed that Holmes attempted to rehabilitate her public image as she rebranded herself as a laid back, salt of the earth mother who spent time with her kids at the beach.

She recently revealed to the NYT that her voice and the way she dressed was all an act as she conned the tech and science world out of millions with her company.

When Holmes was at the top of her game, talking to the world’s media about her ‘revolutionary’ scientific discovery, she spoke in a deep, terse tone. But this was fake.

She said she is not actually the kind of person that would wear black turtlenecks, red lipstick and use an authoritative voice. 

Instead, Holmes now portrayed herself as a loving mother-of-two who wears a ‘bucket hat and sunglasses’ and enjoys walks around the San Diego Zoo. 

She also told how she spent some of the past year volunteering at a rape crisis center in an attempt to portray herself in a more relatable light whilst defending her actions while promoting her future as a health-tech innovator.