This week, Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and her fiancé, Billy Evans, were spotted prancing around San Francisco’s Marina District with wide grins as they walked Holmes’ Siberian husky, Balto.
She had shed her infamous black turtleneck (inspired by her hero, Steve Jobs) for a white T-shirt and leggings. He sported a black tee that read, “Take a Walk on the Wild Side.” They looked every inch the ordinary, happy, engaged couple.
Anyone who saw them would never have guessed she is facing 20 years behind bars for wire fraud as part of an alleged scheme to defraud investors, doctors and patients. Or that she is considered one of the biggest scam artists of her generation and accused of putting lives in danger.
But despite her pending trial (her next court appearance is April 22), the 35-year-old Holmes and 27-year-old hotel heir are moving full steam ahead in planning a future together.
“The wedding invites were sent out about two weeks ago,” a colleague of Evans’ said, adding that the couple got engaged three or four months ago.
“He gave her his MIT signet ring,” said the colleague, who worked with Evans at Luminar Technologies, a Palo Alto, Calif., firm that produces sensors for self-driving cars. “Billy and the MIT ring, they are inseparable. He always wore it on his pinky finger.
“He could snap his fingers and have a triple-A diamond engagement ring instantly if he wanted to. But if you give her some extravagant ring, it could end up owned by the feds if she has to give up her material possessions.”
Elizabeth Holmes is now facing 20 years in prison for wire fraud. But that hasn’t slowed her romance with new fiancé Billy Evans (left, with Holmes in a social-media snap she posted from the Burning Man Festival).