Elizabeth Holmes Says She Can't Afford $250 a Month Restitution
Lawyers for disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes objected to a restitution payment plan.
Along with Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, Holmes was ordered to pay $452,047,268 in restitution.
Prosecutors want her to pay it back monthly post-release. Her lawyers said that won't be possible.
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Elizabeth Holmes won't be able to afford $250 a month restitution payments when she's released from a Texas prison, her attorneys argued.
The disgraced Theranos founder was found guilty last January of four fraud-related counts and was sentenced to a little more than 11 years in prison. Both she and her former boyfriend and business partner Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani were ordered to pay a collective $452 million in restitution.
It's common for funds like these to never fully be paid out, experts previously told Insider. But courts look for ways to collect some of the money, even if it comes in the form of assets.
"Assets that the government froze at the onset of a prosecution might be available for restitution," said Daniel Richman, a professor at Columbia Law School, and a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan. "But generally, most restitution is never paid."
This week, prosecutors proposed that Holmes pay it month-by-month upon her release, in $250 increments, Bloomberg reported.
Prosecutors told a judge this week that the payment plan wasn't originally determined due to a clerical error, per Bloomberg. But Holmes' attorneys disagreed that the judge made a mistake, and said there's "substantial evidence showing Ms. Holmes' limited financial resources and has appropriately treated Ms. Holmes and Mr. Balwani differently in sentencing," per Bloomberg.
In a New York Times article last month, Holmes said she can't even pay her legal bills, adding, "I have to work for the rest of my life to try to pay for it."
An attorney for Holmes did not respond to Insider's request for comment.
According to the original restitution order, Holmes and Balwani will have to pay $40 million to Walgreens, and $14.5 million to Safeway. They also owe $125 million in restitution to Rupert Murdoch, a Theranos investor.
Source: Business Insider
