The expansive California estate where disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes lived during her fraud trial has made history after selling for $85 million—making it the most expensive property to have traded hands in the San Francisco Bay Area this year.
The lavish Woodside dwelling traded hands for the first time in 114 years on Sept. 3, when it was sold to an anonymous buyer.
Remarkably, though its sale price managed to cement its standing in the history books, the home was actually first listed for a much higher price, having been put on the market for $135 million in 2021.
That price was then reduced to $125 million in 2022, before going down to $110 million in 2024.
For the past century, the estate—which is made up of multiple homes spread across its 74-acre parcel—has belonged to the same family, the Fleishhackers.
The property was originally built in the early 1900s for Mortimer Fleishhacker Sr., a prominent philanthropist and entrepreneur who helped to pioneer the “electrification of California,” according to his foundation’s website.
Over the years, the home, known as Green Gables, has played host to several notable guests and residents—including Holmes, 41, who rented one of the seven homes on the property while she was on trial.
The grounds come complete with more than seven properties, 34 bedrooms, 26 bathrooms, several pools, a tennis court, barns, and gardens.
The original properties were designed by one of the architectural firms that helped to create styles that would last for ages to come, Greene and Greene.
Additionally, architectural icon William Wurster also designed a six-bedroom home on the grounds.
Years later, Thomas Church, a landscape architect who created more than 2,000 private gardens and campus plans for the University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, and Woodside Priory School, designed the property’s pool house and cabana.
The listing was held by Compass agents Brad and Helen Miller, who told SF Gate that they were bowled over when they first saw the dwelling—calling attention to its incredible “artistry” and “mind-boggling” size.
“I remember that first evening we drove up the long estate driveway to the main house, only to be greeted by a sensory experience we will never forget as we took in the artistry of the large main home, the one-of-a-kind enormous rear lawn, the spectacular and colorful surrounding gardens, and the football field-sized lower Roman pool, all framed by an unobstructed view of the Western Hills with the fog lapping over its crest as the sun was setting,” Helen recalled.
For Theranos, however, the most important amenity provided by the property was one that she prized during her trial: privacy.
The mother of two, who is currently serving an 11-year sentence at the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, TX, retreated to the home while she was on trial for 11 counts of fraud at the end of 2021.
Holmes was found guilty on four of those charges in January 2022 and was sentenced in November of that same year.
It marked a bitter end to the entrepreneur’s once-glittering career at the helm of Theranos, a health-tech company that vowed to revolutionize blood testing—before its CEO was brought down by a massive fraud scandal in 2015.
Before then, Holmes had appeared on top of the world, with her company valued at a staggering $9 billion in 2014, while her own net worth was estimated to be around $4.5 billion.
Alongside her partner, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, Holmes amassed an impressive real estate portfolio during that time, snapping up a $9 million French provincial pad in Atherton, a wealthy enclave of Silicon Valley.
The five-bed, 5.5-bathroom mansion was built in 1936 and offered plenty of privacy, thanks to a gated entrance and tall trees throughout the property.
Reminiscent of a European country manor, the 6,800-square-foot main house sits on a 1.16-acre lot filled with gardens, a pool, and a pavilion.
However, soon after that property purchase, things began to go drastically downhill for Theranos, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began investigating the company, following a 2015 report in the Wall Street Journal that exposed the deficiencies with the company’s blood-testing technology.
The following year, Balwani left Theranos and the company closed its medical lab operations.
In 2018, Holmes and Balwani then landed in a world of legal trouble: The Securities and Exchange Commission brought civil securities fraud charges, and Holmes and Balwani were indicted on criminal fraud charges by the Department of Justice.
That same year, Balwani bought out Holmes’ 50% stake in the HMFR LLC for $7.9 million and became the sole owner of the Atherton mansion.
Balwani sold the home for $15.8 million in January 2022, the same month that Holmes was found guilty in court.
