Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the failed blood-testing startup Theranos, was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison on Friday for defrauding investors about her company’s technology and business dealings.

The sentence capped a years-long saga that has captivated the public and ignited debates about Silicon Valley’s culture of hype and exaggeration.

Holmes, who raised $945 million for Theranos and promised that the start-up would revolutionize health care with tests that required just a few drops of blood, was convicted in January of four counts of wire fraud for deceiving investors with those claims, which turned out not to be true. Judge Edward J. Davila of the US District Court for the Northern District of California sentenced Holmes to 135 months in prison, which is slightly more than 11 years, followed by three years of supervised release.

Holmes, 38, who plans to appeal the verdict, must surrender to custody on April 27, 2023. In the courtroom on Friday, Holmes — who appeared with a large group of friends and family, including her parents and her partner, Billy Evans — cried when she read a statement to the judge.

“I am devastated by my failings,” she said. “I have felt deep pain for what people went through because I failed them.”

Holmes, who has a one year-old son and is pregnant with her second child, apologized to the investors, patients and employees of Theranos.

She said she had tried to realise her dream too quickly and do too many things at once. She ended with a quotation from the poet Rumi and a promise to do good in the world in the future.

Though federal sentencing guidelines for wire fraud of the size that Holmes was convicted of recommended a maximum of 20 years in prison, a probation officer assigned to the case proposed nine years.

New York Times News Service