Featured Image Credit: Bravo
One reality TV star has given us a bizarre glimpse into the life of former billionaire Elizabeth Holmes, and proving it's a small world, Real Housewives of Salt Lake City's Jen Shah inadvertently found herself banged up behind bars with the Theranos founder.
In 2015, Elizabeth Holmes was named the youngest and wealthiest self-made female billionaire in the USA, thanks to a reported $9 billion net worth. Still, being a billionaire doesn't put you above performing a pretty gross duty while banged up in Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas.
Tracking Holmes' journey from being a billionaire to a prisoner locked up with an RHOSLC alumna, things started to fall apart when The Wall Street Journal's John Carreyrou posted a 'bombshell' 2015 report claiming that Theranos' promises to revolutionize the health industry with finger-prick blood tests were akin to selling snake oil.
Advert
In November 2022, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila sentenced Holmes to 135 months in prison on three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit the crime of wire fraud. Although her sentence was later reduced to 123 months due to a guideline change that's good news for first-time offenders with clear records, she's still not due to be released from FPC Bryan until December 2031. Still, Holmes maintains her innocence.
Holmes isn't FPC Bryan's notable resident, with Jeffrey Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell also being held in the minimum-security facility. Arrested in March 2021 and sentenced in January 2023, Shah faced 78 months in prison when she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Although she repeatedly had her sentence reduced and was released from FPC Brayn in December 2025, she's now opened up about her time with Holmes.
Speaking to People, Shah admitted she and Holmes bonded when assigned to the same gross job: "We both got assigned to poop duty together. When you do poop duty with someone, you’re going to be close."
Referring to Holmes (she called her 'Lizzie') as a 'good friend', Shah said: "As another high-profile prisoner, there are just certain things you’re both dealing with, so you naturally come together in those instances."
As for the dirty details of 'poop duty', it apparently happened due to repeated violations in the unit that the pair shared for 10 months. Basically, if someone in the bathroom doesn't clean it, you get a strike. Three strikes equals poop duty. Shah said she nearly made it through her sentence without being drafted to poop duty, but one day, her bathroom 'got hit'.
It's as grim as you can imagine, as Shah added: "On poop duty, you pull up a metal chair and watch everybody come in and use the bathroom. After they use the bathroom, you have to get up, go inspect it, and either clean it if they don’t or tell them to come back and clean it."
“You can imagine the smells and everything going on. If you get more strikes, you keep doing hours of poop duty. So, yeah — it’s a thing. It's poop duty in prison."
The outlet reported that Holmes and Shah had become friends back in 2023, with the Teranos founder being an apparent regular at the reality star's 'Shah-mazing Abs' class.
In terms of Holmes' determination that she didn't do anything wrong, Shah concluded: "I had to accept the mistakes that I made and take accountability. Elizabeth, she’s continued to defend her innocence while she’s been there."
