Image by Michael Kovac / Getty Images for Vanity Fair / Futurism Developments
Convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes is still in prison — but she's back online, in the weirdest way imaginable.
As it stands, the former CEO of the infamous healthtech startup Theranos is currently serving out an 11-year prison sentence at a minimum security prison in Texas. As a quick recap, Holmes claimed that her company had invented a medical testing device, called Edison, that could detect a wide range of illnesses — diabetes, cancers, and more — with just a few pinpricks of blood. These claims were nothing short of fantastical, according to experts, and absolutely not based in reality: the Edison machine didn't actually work, and wrought havoc in the lives of patients who received misdiagnoses.
Even so, Theranos raked in billions of dollars in funding, drawing investments from the likes of Fox News patriarch Rupert Murdoch and the Walton family; high-profile figures including Henry Kissinger sat on the firm's board. After a long period of drama, the company fell apart, and Holmes was accused in court of swindling investors while lying about the tech's prowess. She was found guilty in 2022 of four counts of fraud, which she recently tried to appeal without success.
And yet! On Tuesday, Holmes took to X-formerly-Twitter for the first time since 2015 — the year Theranos, and her life, unraveled in public view — to share a quote about, uh, justice, from the legendary Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
The convicted scammer included a pullout from the quote in the image's caption, writing: "The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice."
The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice. pic.twitter.com/bdgPK4wMVX — Elizabeth Holmes (@ElizabethHolmes) August 26, 2025
Assuming the post is actually by Holmes or someone representing her — and that her account hasn't just been hacked — it's a remarkable thing to behold.
After all, Holmes' fabrications didn't just mean that a handful of some of the wealthiest people on Earth lost some money; real, everyday people had to deal with the trauma of Theranos tests falsely diagnosing them with conditions including HIV and cancer, while others were incorrectly told they'd miscarried, or had developed a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy.
One man was put at risk when a Theranos test told him his blood wasn't clotting correctly, causing his physician to make significant adjustments to his medical regimen. All the while, Holmes and fellow former Theranos executive Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, the CEO's then-boyfriend who's also serving a lengthy prison sentence related to the scammy startup, worked to quell internal company dissent.
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