Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for scamming investors in her blood-testing start-up, which was once valued at $9 billion (£7.5 billion).

The former Silicon Valley star made people believe that her device could diagnose sickness with just a few droplets of blood. The 38-year-old pregnant Holmes was sobbing in court, saying she felt "great sadness" for victims who had been duped by her hoax.

After a three-month trial, she was found guilty in January.

Holmes is anticipated to file an appeal against the sentence, which was handed out in a California court on Friday. She was once dubbed the "next Steve Jobs" and was supposed to be the world's youngest self-made billionaire.

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She founded Theranos after dropping out of Stanford University at the age of 19, and its worth skyrocketed as the business claimed it might revolutionize disease diagnosis.

In 2014, the company was estimated to be worth $9 billion, more than the value of Uber and Spotify at the time. But not long after, regulators and the media began asking probing questions about the efficacy of the technology, setting the company's downfall.

Theranos was liquidated in 2018 due to a slew of lawsuits.

Prosecutors argued at Holmes' trial in San Jose, California, that she willfully misled doctors and patients about Theranos' flagship product, the Edison machine, which the firm claimed could diagnose cancer, diabetes, and other illnesses with just a few drops of blood.

They also indicted Holmes for amplifying the firm's performance to its financial sponsors.

Jurors eventually found her guilty of four counts of fraud, with a possible jail sentence of 20 years.