#Elizabeth Holmes’ wealth irrelevant to Theranos case: lawyers

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes wants to stop prosecutors from detailing the luxe lifestyle she lived while leading the blood-testing startup during her upcoming fraud trial.

The disgraced Silicon Valley wunderkind’s legal team argued in a court filing that the wealth she accumulated as Theranos’ CEO has “no bearing” on the charges that she defrauded investors and patients who used the company’s allegedly bogus services.

“That Ms. Holmes enjoyed a certain lifestyle — one that is commensurate with the lifestyle of many other CEOs — says nothing about whether Ms. Holmes committed fraud to obtain or maintain that lifestyle,” the 36-year-old’s lawyers wrote.

The feds plan to introduce evidence showing that Holmes’ hefty Theranos salary allowed her to drive a high-end SUV, rent a pricey home and take luxurious trips, according to the filing. She also allegedly had Theranos staffers run personal errands and perform other tasks for her.

But Holmes’ lawyers contend that evidence should be excluded from the trial because it could turn the jury against her even though it has “no relevance” to whether she’s guilty or innocent.

They also said the financial benefits Holmes received from Theranos were “modest in comparison” to the CEOs of other multibillion-dollar companies and that her salary was lower than those of other Theranos executives.

The filing was among more than a dozen motions that Holmes’ lawyers submitted Friday aimed at blocking prosecutors from introducing certain pieces of evidence during the trial, which is set to start in March.

The lawyers also asked to exclude evidence from the Food and Drug Administration’s inspections of Theranos and several news articles about the company, including a series of stories in The Wall Street Journal that helped expose its questionable practices.

Holmes and former Theranos president Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani have both pleaded not guilty to charges that they peddled bogus blood tests with devices that they promoted as revolutionary but knew were unreliable and inaccurate. Balwani will reportedly be tried separately from Holmes after her trial begins next year.