Elizabeth Holmes' Net Worth Has Plummeted Since Theranos Crumbled

As Theranos founder and former CEO Elizabeth Holmes prepares to serve the 11-year prison sentence she was given in November 2022 for defrauding investors, many can't help but wonder where her net worth stands. Is Holmes still a billionaire?

We already know that Holmes lost billions since her 2018 indictment, but her status as a billionaire managed to stay intact amid the fracturing of a once-unicorn. Now that she has been convicted and ordered to pay fines and restitution (which will be determined at a later date), how much of her fortune remains in 2023?

Theranos may be responsible for giving Holmes a name in Silicon Valley and a once impressive net worth of paper, but its downfall has resulted in her receiving a lengthy jail sentence and diminished net worth. Today, Holmes has a net worth of $0 — zero, zilch, nada.

At one point during her trial, the former CEO reportedly claimed she couldn't afford legal representation and requested that she be provided with legal counsel, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

As for Theranos' former COO Sunny Balwani, his net worth has faired much better. While some speculate Balwani’s net worth to be somewhere around $84 million, which may or may not include the $16 million he collected from the sale of his California mansion, we suspect he’s worth far less given what was spent on his criminal case.

In July 2022, Balwani was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison. He is expected to surrender himself on March 15, 2023.

Back in 2018, the SEC charged two executives of the privately held company Theranos with fraud. Holmes and her former colleague Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani were both charged with severe crimes and criminal trials were held separately for each, which began around the summer of 2022. Those charges came after Theranos was accused of utilizing flawed technology.

Because Theranos was privately held, the SEC didn't mandate the company to shut down. Instead, Holmes was forced to return 18.9 million shares of Theranos stock. The company ended up dissolving just a few months after Holmes' departure anyway.

Holmes, who is now 39 years old, managed to push back her trial (with her attorney's help, of course) four times before ultimately being convicted. In March 2021, Holmes' attorneys announced the defendant's pregnancy, which pushed her trial start date back from July (Holmes gave birth to her first child in July 2021). The trial's three previous delays were due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, although the trial is over and Holmes has been sentenced, the Theranos founder is pushing to delay her jail term seeing that she recently gave birth to her second child. Holmes is also planning on appealing her conviction and a hearing is scheduled for March 17, 2023, CNN reported. Depending on how that goes, Holmes may or may not be required to turn herself in on April 27.

At the height of her career in 2015, Holmes' net worth reached an estimated $4.5 billion. Most of this came from her 50 percent stake in Theranos, which was worth about $9 billion. At this point, Theranos' blood tests were largely considered to be legitimate.

By the time 2016 rolled around and the reality behind Theranos became clear, her net worth fell by about $1 billion.

By 2020, Holmes' net worth sank to basically nothing. She was actually in debt to Theranos to the tune of $25 million, even given the company's dissolution. Her legal fees are also a hot topic, especially since the trial was postponed four times.