Both the prosecution and defense in Elizabeth Holmes’ federal fraud case want the judge to delay jury selection until Aug. 31 because the Theranos founder is pregnant.
If Judge Edward Davila agrees, this would be the fourth delay in Holmes’ trial. Originally scheduled to start July 28, 2020, the trial has been continually delayed due to logistical problems involving the COVID-19 pandemic.
The latest start date has been July 13, but Holmes’ attorneys told prosecutors in March that she has a July due date.
Holmes and Theranos were once Silicon Valley darlings, with Holmes claiming that her company was set to revolutionize blood testing with technology that could analyze tiny amounts of blood. Forbes in 2015 even recognized Holmes as America’s richest self-made woman based on Theranos’ multibillion-dollar valuation at the time.
Investigative reporting, though, soon dismantled the claims Holmes was making about Theranos’ technology, raising questions about whether she and others had misled investors. The downward spiral culminated in the 2018 shutdown of the company, with the SEC criminally charging Holmes and former Theranos president Sunny Balwani over what it described as a “massive fraud.”
Balwani’s trial is expected to follow the Holmes trial.