Elizabeth Holmes Says She Can't Afford $250 Per Month to Pay Back Victims

Her lawyers say she has "limited financial resources."

Scrounging for Change

As part of her penance for defrauding investors out of billions, disgraced biotech executive and famed fraudster Elizabeth Holmes and her ex, former Theranos COO and president Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, have been ordered to pay their victims $452 million in restitution.

But Holmes' lawyers claim that she has "limited financial resources," as Bloomberg reports, and won't be able to pay out the nine-figure sum — let alone the monthly installments of $250 she could be required to pay out once released from prison.

It's a staggering new low for Holmes, especially considering her estimated net worth was once valued at around $4.5 billion at the peak of her blood-testing startup back in 2015, which quickly dropped to zero once it turned out she was a fraud.

Clerical Errors

Federal prosecutors are saying that there was a clerical error in restitution-related court filings, and as a result, Holmes hasn't yet been put on any kind of payment schedule, which is usually commonplace for a major case like this.

Demanding monthly installments ensures that there's some sort of accountability, as Bloomberg points out. Think of it as Afterpay, but for convicted fraudsters.

As such, prosecutors are now asking US district judge Edward Davila to correct the paperwork. If he does, Holmes would be required to start either making monthly payments of either $250 or ten percent of her salary to her victims upon her release from prison roughly 11 years from now.

Importantly, Balwani has already been ordered to start paying in installments — $1,000 per month or at least ten percent of his salary — once his 13-year sentence is up.

Both Balwani and Holmes have also agreed to pay $25 towards restitution each quarter while incarcerated.

Even that could prove to be more difficult than it sounds. According to CNN, Holmes could be making as little as $0.12 per hour while in prison.

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