Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has been sentenced to over 11 years in prison for defrauding investors in her blood testing start-up that was once valued at $9bn (£7.5bn).
The former Silicon Valley star falsely claimed the technology could diagnose disease with just a few drops of blood.
Holmes, 38, who is pregnant, tearfully told the court she felt “deep pain” for those misled by the scam.
She was found guilty in January after a three-month trial.
Holmes is expected to appeal against the sentence, which was handed down on Friday in a California court.
Once hailed as the “next Steve Jobs”, she was at one time said to be the world’s youngest self-made billionaire.
She launched Theranos after dropping out of Stanford University at age 19, and its value rose sharply after the company claimed it could bring about a revolution in the diagnosal of disease.
But the technology Holmes touted did not work and – awash in lawsuits – the company was dissolved by 2018.
At Holmes’ trial in…
This article was written by and originally published on www.bbc.co.uk