Elizabeth Holmes' Sentencing Hearing Has Been Postponed As Former Theranos CEO Pushes For New Trial Holmes' legal team succeeding in getting a hearing to review one of its motions for a new trial, delaying sentencing.
Our biggest sale — Get unlimited access to Entrepreneur.com at an unbeatable price. Use code SAVE50 at checkout.*
Claim Offer*Offer only available to new subscribers
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
The world is going to have to wait for Elizabeth Holmes' sentencing hearing.
Elizabeth Holmes, founder and former CEO of Theranos, whose faulty technology fooled investors out of hundreds of millions, was found guilty of three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in January.
At a hearing on Monday, Judge Edward Davila of the Northern District of California said he would permit an additional hearing to look at the testimony of one of the prosecution's key witnesses, which effectively pushes back the sentencing hearing, per CNN.
That witness is Adam Rosendorff, who was once a lab director at Theranos.
Former Theranos Chief Operating Officer and Holmes' one-time partner, Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, was convicted of 12 counts of fraud in July. They both are looking at up to 20 years in prison.
Balwani and Holmes engaged in what the government characterized as a years-long scheme to fool investors into handing over money to Theranos for its "one drop of blood" technology.
One former staffer, Erika Cheung, testified at the Holmes trial that the company's machines were often inaccurate and did not live up to the company's claims. She also said that blood was sent out to other labs to obtain results. In a separate lawsuit, a hedge fund that invested claims Theranos used a shell company to purchase that kind of equipment and run fake tests for investors.
Related: 5 Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn from the Elizabeth Holmes Theranos Trial
Holmes' sentencing was originally scheduled for October 17, but it's now uncertain when the sentencing hearing will take place. Instead, Davila decided that there would be a "limited" hearing to look at Rosendorff"s testimony again.
At the new October 17 hearing, the judge wants to know if Rosendorf feels "the government manipulated you in the preparation or in any way in regards to your testimony," Davila said, per CNN.
Holmes' legal team in September requested a new trial after one of the government's key witnesses, Adam Rosendorff, who was lab director at Theranos, showed up at Holmes' house, distressed and physically out of sorts, and chatted with now-partner of Holmes, Billy Evans.
Evans retold the interaction in an email to Holmes' legal team.
Evans said Rosendorff told him that "when he was called as a witness, he tried to answer the questions honestly but that the prosecutors tried to make everybody look bad."
Davila concurred with the defense that this visit was out of the ordinary.
"I will say I haven't seen a case where this happened before," Davila said.
The prosecution pushed back by having Rosendorff put out a signed declaration that he had testified "truthfully," per CBS.
Holmes' legal team has filed other motions to try and get a new trial, according to CBS, including one claiming the prosecution contradicted itself in its cases against Balwani and Holmes. Another motion focused on emails that came out after the trial related to the question of how Theranos' information about patients was deleted.
