STORY: A jury convicted Holmes, 38, in January following a trial that spanned three months.

Prosecutors, who are seeking a 15-year prison sentence, called Holmes' fraud "among the most substantial white collar offenses Silicon Valley or any other district has seen."

But Holmes' attorneys have asked that she receive a more lenient sentence of 18 months of home confinement, followed by community service, urging the judge not to make her a "martyr to public passion."

Prosecutors said Holmes misrepresented Theranos' technology and finances, including by claiming that its miniaturized blood testing machine was able to run an array of tests from a few drops of blood. The company secretly relied on conventional machines from other companies to run patients' tests, prosecutors said.

Once valued at $9 billion, Theranos Inc promised to revolutionize how patients receive diagnoses by replacing traditional labs with small machines envisioned for use in homes, drugstores and even on the battlefield.