Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has reported to a federal jail after many attempts to shorten her sentence have failed.
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Together with her former business partner Sunny Balwani, the disgraced businesswoman was sentenced to more than 11 years in jail and compelled to pay $452 million (£365 million) to the dozens of prominent investors, they deceived through a blood-testing start-up.
It is a sizable expense for the former millionaire, who has stated that she does not even have the money to pay her attorneys.
Convicted offenders may occasionally be required to make restitution in US federal court.
This is a payment made to victims to cover lost wages, property damage, medical expenditures, and other costs associated with the crime.
In Holmes' situation, she has been mandated to reimburse some of the wealthiest American families.
After leaving Stanford University, she enlisted the help of a number of well-known people to raise money for Theranos, which peaked at a $9 billion valuation.
Henry Kissinger, a former secretary of state, and the Walton family, who established Walmart in the United States, were among the donors.
But many people lost a lot of money when it became clear that her blood-testing technique was ineffective.
According to court records, former education secretary Betsy DeVos allegedly granted Holmes $100 million, despite the fact that the creator of Theranos was required to repay media magnate Rupert Murdoch for $125 million.
According to experts, she won't be able to just file for bankruptcy and pay off her obligations that way. However, victims of her misdeeds shouldn't hold out hope for financial recovery.
They claim that since restitution in the US has become chiefly symbolic, Holmes' investors and many other less fortunate fraud victims are unlikely to get the majority of the money they are promised.
Former federal prosecutor Ryan O'Neill asserts that "very few people, the Bernie Madoffs of the world and everyone else, can pay the full amount of criminal restitution." It's kind of a bogus number, I guess.
She also said that Holmes will still be required to make an effort to make up for the victims she misled. Seizing her assets, including cash in the bank and real estate, has likely already started on the part of the prosecution. They will contrast their own estimates of how much money she has with what she says she has, which might result in disagreements, according to Ms. O'Neill.
When the Theranos founder is imprisoned, her obligations won't stop.
Holmes is to report to the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, where all prisoners are required to labor and are paid between 12 cents and $1.15 per hour, at the judge's recommendation.
According to Randy Zelin, a professor at Cornell Law School, her victims would receive half of the meager income she receives, which is typically $25 every four months.
Even after serving her sentence, she won't be able to buy any significant assets, such as a home, without the help of the federal government. However, the government cannot confiscate any of her spouse, hotel heir William Evans,'s personal property.
In a recent interview with the New York Times, Holmes said that she would "have to work for the rest of my life" only to pay millions of dollars in legal expenses.
However, there are a number of factors that make it doubtful that her victims and many others would receive their money back.
According to Ms. O'Neill, criminal offenders lack the motivation to "make it rich" once more. They are aware of the intended use of the funds.
Others could try to conceal their wealth. John Pottow, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, claims that some people try to place money in trusts to prevent asset seizures. The more wealthy you get, the simpler it is to create legal strategies to conceal your riches.
The instance of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was cited by experts. Jones was sentenced to pay roughly $1.5 billion to the families of Sandy Hook Elementary School victims for distributing false information about the incident, which experts claimed had resulted in harassment.
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In an effort to conceal his assets, Mr. Jones, who has filed both personal and commercial bankruptcy, is accused of channeling money to friends and relatives.
The Sandy Hook families, who are less rich than the Holmes victims, are unlikely to get much money from the right-wing InfoWars host, who will, according to Ms. O'Neill, be giving most of his money to his attorneys despite the fact that prosecutors will be watching Mr. Jones' every move.
According to Mr. Zelin, the US government occasionally relies on victims to keep track of defendants' financial activities in low-profile cases because it lacks the time or means to look into every defendant's holdings.
Theranos investors are more likely to keep an eye on Holmes because of the attention-grabbing nature of her deception as well as her recent financial decisions, such as residing in a $ 13,000-a-month Silicon Valley house, experts said.
"They're not going to stop looking," Ms. O'Neill added. She won't be able to deposit any money into her bank account without the government confiscating it, according to the statement.
