Elizabeth Holmes is going to prison. Will she ever pay victims too?

After several failed attempts to delay her time behind bars, Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is set to report to federal prison this week.

The disgraced entrepreneur was sentenced to over 11 years in prison and ordered to pay $452m (£365m) with her former business partner Sunny Balwani to dozens of highprofile investors they defrauded through a blood-testing startup.

It’s a sizeable bill for the former billionaire, who has claimed she does not even have enough money to pay her lawyers.

In US federal court, convicted offenders are sometimes ordered to pay restitution.

This is a reimbursement to victims for lost income, property damage, medical expenses or other financial costs related to the crime.

In Holmes’ case, she has been ordered to pay back some of the wealthiest families in America.

After dropping out of Stanford University, she recruited several famous figures to raise money for Theranos, valued at $9bn at its peak.

Donors included former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and the Walton family, known for founding American supermarket chain Walmart.

But after it was revealed her blood-testing technology did not work, many lost a fortune.

Former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos reportedly gave Holmes $100m while the Theranos founder has been ordered to pay back media mogul Rupert Murdoch $125m, according to court documents.

She will not be able to just declare bankruptcy and shed her debts that way, experts tell the BBC. But victims of her crimes should not get their hopes up about recouping their cash.

They say restitution in the US has become largely symbolic, meaning Holmes’ investorsand many less wealthy victims of fraud - are unlikely to get most of the money they are owed.

“There are very few peoplethe Bernie Madoffs of the world and everyone else - that can pay the full amount of criminal restitution,” says Ryan O’Neill, a former federal prosecutor. “It’s sort of a fake number.”

Holmes will still be expected to try to pay these people and others she defrauded, she adds. Prosecutors have probably already begun to seize her assets, including money in the bank and properties. They will compare their own accounts of how much money she has to what she claims she possesses, which could lead to disputes, Ms O’Neill said.

The Theranos founder’s debts won’t pause when she sets foot behind bars.

A judge has recommended Holmes report to Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, where all inmates are obligated to work and make between 12 cents and $1.15 an hour.

Half of the small sum she earns - usually around $25 every four months - will go to her victims, said Randy Zelin, a professor at Cornell Law School.

Once her time in prison is finished, she will still not be able to purchase any large assets, including a home, without intervention from the federal government. The government can’t, however, seize assets owned solely by her husband, hotel heir William Evans.

Holmes has acknowledged her dismal financial fate, telling the New York Times this month she will “have to work for the rest of my life” just to pay millions of dollars in legal fees.

But there are a number of reasons why her victims and many others are unlikely to get the money back.

Criminal defendants don’t have an incentive to “make it rich” again, said Ms O’Neill. “They know where the money is going to go.”

Others may attempt to hide assets. University of Michigan Law School professor John Pottow says some try to put money in trusts to avoid asset seizures. “The richer you get, the easier it is to construct legal devices that hide your wealth.”

Experts pointed to the case of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who has been ordered to pay nearly $1.5bn to families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting for spreading lies about the massacre, which they said has led to harassment.

Mr Jones - who has declared both personal and business bankruptcy - has been accused of funnelling money to friends and family in an attempt to hide his assets.

Source: BBC

The first full day in power of Nigeria’s new president has seen people panicbuying fuel following his decision to scrap a decades-long subsidy on petroleum products.

In Monday’s inaugural address, Bola Tinubu said the subsidy was “gone”.

But he gave no timeframe or any more details of this major policy move.

On Tuesday, his team clarified that he meant the end of June and that the panic buying was “needless”, as the policy will not take immediate effect.

President Tinubu wants to ease pressure on government finances, but ending the subsidy will increase the cost of petrol and hit other prices too, at a time when inflation is already high.

In response to his comments on Monday, many filling stations hiked the petrol price, while others stopped selling altogether.

Nigeria’s state-owned oil company, the sole importer of petroleum products, assured the public that it had enough supplies.

But this did not prevent the panic-buying, with most people fearing a drastic rise in the price of petrol, which should be sold at the regulated price of 185 naira per litre (32p, 40c).

Some people have posted videos online of filling stations