16 months after her fraud conviction, Elizabeth Holmes still playing the "game" to avoid prison

 

How long ago was it that Elizabeth Holmes was convicted of conspiracy to defraud investors and customers with her “magic” Edison machine that was supposed to be make dozens of tests from a single drop of blood? Almost 16 months ago? 

And yet she still has managed to avoid starting her 11-year sentence at a resort prison for attractive white women who only stole hundreds of millions of dollars through coddling gullible high-profile persons who wanted to do the socially-progressive thing and support a woman’ grand idea that no one before thought possible. Why not—just throw in enough money into a crazy scheme and who knows what will happen.

The problem of course was that there was a reason why Holmes’ scheme hadn’t been tried before, and that was because it was next to impossible, just this fool's gold. Holmes didn’t have any tech qualifications, she had no clue how to go about building a machine that could do all of this on a single drop of blood. It was a “bold” idea, but she was naively dependent on others to do the impossible. She didn’t want to hear the truth from those tasked to this chimera of a project who told her this was not happening. But as she saw the “idea” of Theranos making her a multi-billionaire, she had to maintain the fraud until a “miracle” happened. 

It didn’t happen, and when the fraud was exposed and investors lost millions when Theranos—after literally rising from nothing to billions to nothing again in a matter of years—collapsed into a company that had not a single product to sell, save the “idea” of it. This was something people perpetrating the hoax couldn’t just get away with, and Holmes and her co-conspirator Sunny Balwani, whose principle crime was being her “Svengali” who advised her on how to “sell” her idea, were charged with fraud and conspiracy in separate trials. Balwani was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to 13 years, while Holmes was seen with relative “sympathy” by jurors who did not convict her on the most serious charges, although the judge was hardly as sympathetic in his sentencing.

Yet we get the impression that Holmes thinks she is going get away with this. It doesn’t take much cynicism to suspect that Holmes never would have chosen to become a “mother” if Theranos hadn’t collapsed with felony charges on the horizon. A “mother” would be looked upon with greater sympathy by a prosecutor, jury and judge, and she might get away with just another fine (which she couldn’t pay), a suspended sentence, or an easier time believing that she was a helpless “tool” of Balwani.

Again, it didn’t “work. Apparently one child wasn’t enough to sway a jury and judge (who saw right through her scheming), so Holmes while waiting on appeal got herself pregnant again, perhaps hoping that her latest delaying tactic—appealing her prison date to the Ninth Circuit Court—will somehow keep her out of jail free. It’s absolutely sickening how people play this “game” where they feel if they play it right they can avoid doing the time they deserve. 

For his part, Balwani lost his appeal to the Ninth and reported to prison without incident. But what will Holmes do if she loses her appeal and is told to report to prison? Will she refuse to do it? Is she hoping for public "outrage" to save her if federal marshals are tasked to physically detain her and take her to prison? I wouldn't put it past her, given her history of arrogant conceit.

Of course if Holmes does eventually report to the minimum security prison, she will likely be able to play fake “parent” in a daycare kind of way with her children because, you know, she is more “special” than, say, a mother in prison who received a few dollars more on welfare payments she wasn’t entitled to who wouldn’t be able to see her children save for a few hours during the weekend. Some people are just more “special” than others—even if their crimes are greater by many multiple factors.

Of course now there is this story from Military.com:

Col. Meghann Sullivan, commander of the 5th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 5th SFAB, faces allegations of assaulting at least two subordinate men and harassing several others, with some of those incidents allegedly tied to alcohol abuse, according to one of the two sources. At least one of those alleged assaults involved forceful kissing and another grabbing a man below the belt without his consent.

Note that "alcohol" abuse may be used here as an "excuse' for this behavior, except that alcohol tends to bring out a person's true character. Sullivan’s brigade commander had previously been immediately suspended while under investigation “into allegations of toxic leadership,” but, according to the story, “Sullivan is seemingly still in command, though commanders are sometimes suspended amid investigations.” 

Well, OK, double standards then, right? And who do we usually expect to benefit from them, despite what gender activists claim? After all, every time there is a report of “fraternization” in a media organization, it is always the man who is fired, because the woman involved is seen as the “victim.”

And no doubt Holmes wants people to see her as the “victim” to avoid jail time, and even if she does eventually report to prison, it will probably be a brief stay anyways, for "good behavior" and "for reasons of motherhood."