Here’s what happened.
Disgraced Silicon Valley executive Elizabeth Holmes, the former head of failed blood-testing company Theranos, has formally asked President Donald Trump to commute her federal prison sentence, according to records maintained by the Office of the Pardon Attorney.
The clemency petition was submitted in 2025 and is currently listed as pending, meaning the Justice Department has opened the case and is reviewing the request under standard federal procedures.
Holmes was convicted in 2022 on multiple felony counts, including conspiracy to defraud investors and several counts of wire fraud. Federal prosecutors demonstrated that she knowingly misled investors while raising more than $140 million for blood-testing technology that repeatedly failed internal validation.
She was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison and, under current terms, is not scheduled for release until December 2031.
At the time of sentencing, U.S. Attorney Stephanie Hinds stated that the punishment reflected both the scale of the deception and the extensive financial harm caused by Holmes’ actions.
Theranos was founded in 2003 and promoted as a revolutionary medical breakthrough, claiming it could perform hundreds of lab tests using just a finger-prick of blood. Court records later showed Holmes was aware the technology did not work reliably but continued promoting it to investors and business partners.
During Theranos’ rise, Holmes lived an extravagant lifestyle, including residing in a luxury estate valued at roughly $15 million and traveling aboard private aircraft paid for by company funds, according to prosecutors.
Despite these issues, Holmes was once widely praised by corporate media outlets. In 2015, she was named one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” and appeared on the covers of Fortune, Forbes, Inc., and Glamour—recognition critics later cited as evidence of institutional media failure.
Holmes’ petition is one of many now under consideration. As of January 21, President Trump has issued 92 pardons and 23 commutations, according to publicly available Justice Department data.
Whether the former Theranos executive will receive clemency remains unclear. However, her request once again places one of the most infamous corporate fraud cases in modern American history back into the public spotlight.
