Attorneys representing former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes are requesting a delay to her fraud trial after revealing she is pregnant and due around the time of the scheduled July start.
Holmes faces several charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud stemming from her failed company, Theranos, which made promises of revolutionizing the blood testing industry.
She was charged in 2018, and after several delays because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a judge had scheduled the trial to start on July 13, 2021.
In a court filing revealed Friday, attorneys for both sides are asking the judge to push back the start date because Holmes is pregnant “with an expected due date in July 2021.”
According to CNBC, attorneys are asking the trial to start six weeks later, on August 31, 2021.
In 2019, Holmes married Billy Evans, an heir to a hospitality property management company in California.
Holmes and her former COO, and ex-boyfriend, Sunny Balwani are both facing wire fraud charges for allegedly falsely claiming their company’s machines could perform several diagnostic tests with just a single drop of blood.
The prosecution says the pair knew all along the technology wasn’t capable of doing the tests as promised, and allegedlydefrauded investors, doctors and patients. They could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
The start-up was once valued at $9 billion.
In September, there were multiplereports that Holmes’ attorneys may attempt to claim “mental disease” in her criminal trial.
Court filingsreleasedat the time indicated Holmes’ lawyers wanted to introduce evidence “relating to a mental disease or defect or any other mental condition of the defendant bearing on the issue of guilt.” However, details of what exactly her mental state is, or what the lawyers intend to argue are redacted.
