Elizabeth Holmes, the convicted founder of blood testing startup Theranos, has given birth to her second child months before she is scheduled to start her 11-year prison sentence.

Holmes, 39, was found guilty of three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy in January 2022.

When she was sentenced to 11 years in prison in November, she was visibly pregnant. She had given birth to her first child with her partner Billy Evans in July 2021, while she was on trial for fraud.

Holmes is currently scheduled to report for her prison sentence on April 27. Judge Edward Davila recommended that she serve her time at Federal Prison Camp, a minimum security women’s facility in Bryan, Texas.

Since her sentencing, her attorneys have been trying to delay her imminent incarceration due to her young family.

The birth of Holmes second child was revealed in court filings after prosecutors accused her of trying to flee the country before her prison sentence.

Prosecutors made the accusation after they noticed she had booked a one-way ticket on a commercial airline to Mexico.

Her attorneys shot back, insisting that Evans booked the ticket in her name to attend a ‘wedding of close friends’ before her guilty verdict over a year ago, when she was still ‘full of hope.’ They also said she cancelled the ticket as soon as prosecutors raised an issue with it.

Lawyers for Holmes insisted that she has an ‘impeccable record’ after being under supervision for four and a half years since her proceedings began in 2018. Additionally, they argued ‘the Court has her expired passport, which she has made no attempt to renew. Her bond is secured by her parents’ only home.’

They revealed the birth of Holmes’ second child while arguing that she wasn’t a flight risk due to her ties to the US:

‘Ms. Holmes has deep ties to the community: She is the mother of two very young children; she has close relationships with family and friends, many of who submitted letters at sentencing vouching for her good character; and she volunteers with a rape crisis and counseling organization,’ her lawyers argued.

Holmes founded her Silicon Valley startup, Theranos, in 2003 after dropping out of Stanford University. She claimed to have invented a machine to perform dozens of tests using much less blood than standard tests.

The company attracted high profile investors, and was valued at $9billion before it began to collapse in 2015.

Holmes, along with her ex-boyfriend and Theranos COO Sunny Balwani, was charged with fraud three years later, after extensive reporting revealed that her machines couldn’t perform most of the functions she claimed.

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