How Silicon Valley fervor explains Elizabeth Holmes' 11-year prison sentence

Elizabeth Holmes' 11-year prison sentence would not have been possible without the zeal the moneyed class has for Silicon Valley startups.

When U.S. District Judge Edward Davila ordered prison time for the former CEO last week, one thing was pivotal: How much money investors had lost because of her crimes.

That's because federal sentencing guidelines, what judges use to determine appropriate punishments for people convicted of crimes, give more weight to the amount of money lost than anything else in fraud cases.

And Theranos, like so many buzzy startups, was flush with investment cash. It raised some $945 million from the likes of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.