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Crime News

Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes Is Reportedly Engaged — Here's What To Know

Although Elizabeth Holmes claimed she was "married to Theranos," she reportedly has a romantic relationship with young hotel heir Billy Evans.

By Eric Shorey

Elizabeth Holmes was consistently described as "mysterious," even "sphinx-like." But with the downfall of the infamous CEO's company, Theranos (which at one point had been valued at $9 billion by Forbes), the alleged fraudster's personal life was put under a microscope. HBO's latest documentary "The Inventor: Out For Blood In Silicon Valley" explores the chaos hidden just beneath the sheen of Holmes' presentation, revealing a series of bizarre quirks along the way.

Now, as Holmes faces criminal charges for her actions, reporters are searching for even more information on the elusive entrepreneur's personal life — and it turns out a man named Billy Evans plays a crucial role in it.

The question of Holmes' romantic life only briefly figured into the mystique she attempted to create while leading Theranos to short-lived success. When asked about the subject, Holmes at one point told Ken Auletta of The New Yorker that she was "married to Theranos," as depicted in the new HBO film.

Although Holmes maintained her aromantic orientation in public, it seemed obvious to many that she had become entangled with business partner Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani.

"Holmes ... told The New Yorker that she 'doesn’t date,' even though she was dating Sunny Balwani," said Vanity Fair writer Nick Bilton just last month.

However, Holmes' alleged relationship with Balwani didn't last after the company fell under scrutiny: She allegedly fired him and dumped him.

Bilton also broke the news that as Theranos was falling apart after it was revealed its blood testing was allegedly a scam, Holmes was partying at Burning Man with her new beau.

"As [acting Theranos CEO David Taylor] locked the door at the company’s lab in Newark, California, Holmes was roughly 375 miles away, dressing in white fur, with pink bug-eyed sunglasses, prancing around the playa," Bilton wrote.

On Twitter, Bilton tracked down and shared photos from Holmes' private Instagram to show the world the "younger hospitality heir," who he had previously asserted was now engaged to Holmes. Together, the pair own a Husky named Balto (who Holmes allegedly sometimes claims is a wolf).

Although Bilton never named him, it wasn't long until the young man in the photos was identified by The Daily Mail as 27-year-old William "Billy" Evans, whose grandparents founded the Evans Hotel Group. William's father, Bill Evans, said that the Evans Hotel Group grosses around $100 million yearly in a profile on Voices of San Diego.

Evans' LinkedIn profile lists him as the Manager of Special Projects for Luminar Technologies, a start-up focused on self-driving vehicles, from February 20017 until January 2019. Before that, Evans appears to have worked as a Strategy and Analytics Leadership Program Analyst at LinkedIn for almost two years.

Although Holmes and Evans have not publicly confirmed their relationship, former employees have since spotted the two dining out in California. 

“She was dressed in a dark hoodie and jeans and didn’t look to have any makeup on or anything. She looked very young,” former Theranos software engineer Michael Craig said on "The Dropout" Podcast. “She seemed a little bit worn-down, but she didn’t seem like somebody who had done anything wrong.”

Any information about the couple's eventual plans to marry have not been made available to the public.

Holmes, meanwhile, has pleaded not guilty to the latest charges she faces, according to Ars Technica.

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