Theranos exec Sunny Balwani convicted of fraud

• Ramesh Balwani was found guilty of defrauding investors as part of a scheme.
• Theranos once had a market value of $9 billion, but its blood testing technology was ineffective.
• He could spend up to 20 years behind bars and pay his victims millions in damages.

Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, a Silicon Valley executive, was found guilty of defrauding investors as part of a scheme with his ex-girlfriend Elizabeth Holmes.

He constantly and fraudulently asserted that Theranos, their company, had a technology that could identify hundreds of diseases from a few drops of blood.

In a separate trial held in January, Holmes was convicted guilty of the abuse claims she had made against Balwani, who has denied them.

In the fall, a court will sentence Holmes, 38, and Balwani, 57.

Holmes is currently out on bail and could spend up to 20 years in prison. Balwani could spend up to 20 years behind bars and pay his victims millions of dollars in damages.

Theranos once had a market value of $9 billion (£7.5 billion), but its blood testing technology was ineffective.

Also Read

Ben & Jerry’s sues parent company Unilever over sale of Israeli business

Ben & Jerry's is suing Unilever to prevent the transfer of the...

In the heart of Silicon Valley in San Jose, California, on the fifth day of jury deliberations, the verdict was announced. All 12 of the accusations made against Balwani were found to be true.

Prosecutors displayed text conversations that Balwani had sent to Holmes during closing statements on June 21.

In 2015, he stated, “I am accountable for everything at Theranos.” All of them were made by me as well.

Jeffrey Schenk, an assistant US attorney, described the communication as an admission of guilt. He declared, “He’s admitting his part in the fraud.”

In the past, Silicon Valley and the biotech industry loved Theranos.

With the help of investors, including billionaires like media mogul Rupert Murdoch and computer tycoon Larry Ellison, Holmes was able to raise more than $900 million.

The company claimed that a test that required only a few drops of blood would revolutionise the healthcare sector by allowing for the early detection of diseases like cancer and diabetes.

But in 2015, these assertions started to fall apart after a Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that the company’s primary blood-testing technology was flawed.

The three-month Balwani case resembled the government’s prosecution of Holmes in many ways.

After Balwani joined the company and was appointed chief financial officer in 2010, his attorneys claimed that Holmes also deceived him.

The couple went to considerable measures to make sure that investors and staff were uninformed of their sexual relationship before splitting up when the firm crumbled in 2016.

His attorneys emphasised the fact that after contributing $15 million of his personal funds to Theranos and seeing his investment grow to over $500 million, he never exercised his stock options.

Balwani did not take the witness stand to defend himself, in contrast to Holmes.
Holmes apparently first met Balwani when she was 18 years old and travelling to Beijing with her college.

He was a South Asian immigrant, 37, who had made millions by selling his software business before to the collapse of the dot-com bubble. He divorced his wife, a Japanese artist, at the same time he met Holmes. Around the time that Holmes was launching Theranos, their friendship became into a romantic one.

Holmes was the company’s spokesperson, but he was also the businessman acting as president and COO.

Robert Leach, the prosecution, stated earlier in the trial that “Ms. Holmes and Mr. Balwani were partners in practically everything.”

The rosy lies that the defendant and Holmes were telling investors were at odds with the truth about Theranos, according to the prosecution.

Also Read

After becoming viral, Hello Kitty company signs a partnership with China

Sanrio's imp-like rabbit Kuromi was featured in a Chinese social media video...