Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Keenan joins the Live show to discuss the latest surrounding Elizabeth Holmes’ ongoing trial.

Video Transcript

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Well, a big day in court for Silicon Valley darling turned convict Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. A federal judge is set to make a ruling over Holmes' request to stay out of prison and how much she should repay the investors, who sunk hundreds of millions of dollars into her blood testing company. Yahoo Finance's Alexis Keenan is here with the details. Hey, Alexis.

ALEXIS KEENAN: Hi, Rachelle. So yeah, this is a big stakes hearing for Elizabeth Holmes today. It's starting at 1:00 PM Eastern time. And it's to settle some post-trial matters that are still pending between the government and Holmes and her attorneys. And they stem from that fraud conviction that she had on four counts of corporate white collar fraud back in January of 2022 and for which she was sentenced to 11+ years in federal prison.

Now, in this hearing, the judge is set to tackle three different disputes between the government and Holmes. The first is Elizabeth Holmes' request to stay out of prison pending an appeal of her convictions. And that appeal will go, as she says, to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She'd like to stay out of prison while that matter is handled, though the judge is not expected to go for that request. He has already denied a similar request from Holmes' co-defendant Sunny Balwani.

At the sentencing, the judge had ordered Elizabeth Holmes to surrender to prison on April 27. So, very soon here. And that was also taking into consideration that she was, at the time, waiting on the birth of her second child, which she has since given birth to. Now, second, the government is also going to have a request at this hearing, and it is requesting that Elizabeth Holmes pay back restitution. And what restitution is, it's basically paying back victims of fraud or of a crime.

And so in this case, the government is asking for a whopping $887 million for Elizabeth to pay back victims, though the judge is expected to reduce that amount. And he's already called the amount inherently suspect. And in calculating the actual amount that investors lost due to the counts on which Holmes was convicted, that number was about $120 million. So that 878 being quite a bit more there.

Now, finally, also, the judge will be considering a request from Elizabeth Holmes to block some information in court documents that is about whether or not she is a flight risk. Government prosecutors, they contend that she is and therefore she should be sent to prison on her date of surrender. But Holmes wants to keep out some information that has to do with her purchase of a one-way plane ticket to Mexico that prosecutors say she only canceled her trip to go out of the country, which was prohibited under her bail conditions, after government prosecutors alerted her counsel that she had purchased that ticket.

Now, the judge could rule from the bench today, or he could take these matters under consideration. But we will be bringing you the latest later this afternoon once that hearing does take place in San Jose, California and federal court.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: And Alexis, you mentioned Elizabeth Holmes' co-defendant and former boyfriend, Sunny Balwani, has skirted prison for now. What is happening with his case?

ALEXIS KEENAN: Yeah, so he is making a similar request to Holmes, although his request to remain out of prison pending an appeal of his case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, it has already been considered by Judge Davila. And the judge in the district court there has rejected his request. However, there is an automatic right to remain free if you do ask the appellate court to stay out of prison while the court considers whether the matters that you're bringing to it are worthy of you staying out of incarceration.

So he has filed kind of an 11th hour request to the appellate court. So for now, he was supposed to report to prison as of yesterday, but he remains out on this request that the appellate court is expected to take up likely in short order. Rachelle.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Certainly lots of twists and turns still with this Theranos case.

ALEXIS KEENAN: [INAUDIBLE]

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Alexis Keenan, thank you there for that update.