Lawyers for disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes were back in San Francisco court Tuesday morning to appeal her fraud conviction.
Lawyers for Holmes and her former partner Sunny Balwani, who are both currently in prison for crimes they committed while running Palo Alto biotech startup Theranos, had just 15 minutes to plead their case to a group of federal judges.
Some say the appeal is a long shot and unlikely to succeed, but at the same time, it's potentially Holmes’s last best hope for a new trial.
Holmes's lawyers made a case that some of the evidence in her trial was prejudicial and led directly to her guilty verdict.
Holmes, who is not expected to appear in court, is serving her prison sentence in Texas until 2032.
Legal analyst Steven Clark believes Theranos co-founder and Holmes’s former partner Sunny Balwani, who also was convicted on all counts against him, has less to overcome in an appeal.
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"I think the Balwani team actually has more to work with, particularly when it comes to the conspiracy counts," Clark said. "Mr. Balwani was found guilty of conspiring with Ms. Holmes, yet she was found not guilty of conspiring with Mr. Balwani, and that is an inconsistent verdict and may be grounds of an appeal."
His legal team argued their client was unfairly targeted and should get a new trial.
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"Mr Balwani didn't get a fair trial,” Jeff Coopersmith, Balwani’s attorney, said. "The government didn't want the jury to hear the actual words of what Ms. Holmes said to investors, and the testimony that came in was false,” Coopersmith said. “I think Mr. Balwani deserves a new trial and I hope the court sees it that way."
Regardless of the courts decide on either appeal, Clark says the impact of these conviction remains.
"This is still a reminder to Silicon Valley that the government is going to prosecute these cases very vigorously and continue to send the message that the 'fake-it-till-you-make-it culture is not going to work if you cross over from self-belief into fraud," Clark said.
