A California judge sentenced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes to 135 months in prison for defrauding investors in her now-defunct blood testing start-up that was once valued at $9 billion (€8.7 billion).

US District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose sentenced Holmes on three counts of investor fraud and one count of conspiracy. A jury convicted Holmes, 38, in January following a trial that spanned three months.

Assistant US attorney Jeff Schenk told the judge before he handed down the sentence that a 15-year sentence would be “making a statement that the ends don’t justify the means.”

But Holmes’s lawyer Kevin Downey urged leniency for Holmes at the hearing, saying that unlike someone who committed a “great crime” she was not motivated by greed. – Reuters