Elizabeth Holmes arrived in court Monday to face accusations over not paying her lawyers.

The Theranos founder ditched her usual black turtleneck for a gray suit and heels as she arrived at the San Jose Federal Courthouse for a hearing.

Last month, the founder of scandalized blood-testing startup Theranos was accused of skipping out on bills owed to the lawyers defending her against fraud charges in a civil lawsuit.

Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes was seen arriving to court on Monday in San Jose, California

Lawyers representing Holmes in a civil lawsuit claims Holmes hasn't paid them in over a year and doesn't plan to

Holmes smiled without a word as she arrived to the courtroom, flanked by her team. After about two hours, she left the courthouse, according to CNBC.

The lawyers were representing Holmes in a separate class-action civil lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of consumers who paid for Theranos’ blood testing service.

Holmes, who ran Theranos until its 2018 collapse, hasn't paid her Palo Alto, California, attorney John Dwyer and his colleagues for the past year, according to documents filed in Phoenix federal court.

The lawyers said they want to quit the case because they don't ever expect to be paid.

The documents cited Holmes 'current financial situation'.

'Ms. Holmes has not paid Cooley for any of its work as her counsel of record in this action for more than a year,' the lawyers said.

'Given Ms. Holmes's current financial situation Cooley has no expectation that Ms. Holmes will ever pay it for its services as her counsel,' they added.

Separately, Holmes and her former deputy Ramesh 'Sunny' Balwani face up to 20 years in prison if convicted in their criminal case of the nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

She and former Theranos college Ramesh 'Sunny' Balwani will stand trial on August 4, 2020 and could face up to 20 years in jail and millions in fines

They are charged of lying to doctors and patients about blood tests and deceiving investors over finances

Holmes has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges of conspiracy and fraud in a case that is scheduled to go to trial next summer

Holmes has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges of conspiracy and fraud in a case that is scheduled to go to trial next summer.



Theranos, founded in 2003 by then 19-year-old Stanford dropout Holmes, raised more than $700 million from private market investors in what’s been referred to by the Securities and Exchange Commission as an 'elaborate, years-long fraud in which they exaggerated or made false statements about the company’s technology, business, and financial performance'.

Prosecutors say Holmes and Balwani, who were once romantically-linked despite a 19-year age gap, claimed their revolutionary 'Edison' machine could provide patients with a comprehensive, accurate and cheap blood test by analyzing just a single drop of blood.

In reality, the technology was still years away from that - the machines actually had accuracy and reliability problems and performed limited tests.