Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Is Living In A Multi-Million-Dollar Estate During Her Fraud Trial, As Opening Statements Shock Court
Sept. 8 2021, Published 4:25 p.m. ET
The trial of Elizabeth Holmes began today, but at least when the embattled Theranos founder leaves court for the day, she gets to go home to a multi-million-dollar estate.
Holmes, 37, and her hotel heir husband, William "Billy" Evans, 29, are living in a mega-mansion on the ultra-posh grounds of Green Gables, California, one of the one of the wealthiest towns in Silicon Valley.
The couple's envious address was first revealed when Billy was issued a traffic citation for "failure to display license plate" by police officers in San Mateo County.
CNBC has now been able to confirm that Holmes and Evans are currently staying in one of the massive, storied homes that occupy the 74-acre property.
The estate, which has a price tag $135 million, is nestled in the sophisticated town of Woodside.
Not a bad place for the woman facing 20 years behind bars to be decompressing on the days following her just-begun criminal trial.
Holmes was charged with 10 counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for her involvement in Theranos, the now-defunct blood-testing company she founded and ran with her partner, Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani. His trial will begin in January.
But Holmes' began today, and the opening statements were downright shocking.
While prosecutors painted the Stanford University dropout to be a lying, manipulative, fraudulent criminal, her defense team insisted that the only thing she was guilty of was failure.
"This is a case about fraud – about lying and cheating to get money," Robert Leach, a member of the prosecution team, told United States District Judge Edward Davila, a 12-member jury and five alternate jurors on Wednesday inside the San Jose courtroom.
Holmes' alleged scheme, said Leach, made her a billionaire.
It "brought her fame, it brought her honor and it brought her adoration," he said.
