Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, the previous enterprise associate of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, can be sentenced Wednesday for his function within the disgraced blood-test firm’s years-long fraud.
U.S. prosecutors have advisable Balwani, 58, obtain at the least 15 years in jail after he was convicted in July on 12 counts of fraud.
That will be a harsher sentence than what Holmes acquired final month.
Theranos, which promised that its know-how might shortly take a look at for a variety well being situations with only a pin-prick of blood, raised lots of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in funding and attracted high-profile board members earlier than collapsing after a collection of investigative reporting that forged doubt on the corporate’s viability.
As Theranos’ president and chief working officer, Balwani had direct oversight over the corporate’s labs, the place a few of the most egregious examples of misconduct occurred. Throughout Balwani’s trial, prosecutors known as witnesses who stated Theranos’ inaccurate blood assessments brought on real-world hurt.
“Mr. Balwani knew that Theranos was not producing, and wouldn’t generate, any significant income by being sincere with folks,” U.S. Legal professional Jeff Schenk stated. “So he selected a special path.”
Textual content messages launched through the trial confirmed Balwani’s outsized function.
“I’m answerable for all the things at Theranos,” Balwani wrote in a 2015 textual content message to Holmes. “All have been my choices too.”
Balwani’s protection crew stated the previous software program govt had acted in good religion.
“He believed, and had each purpose to consider, within the world-class scientific crew at Theranos and the know-how they developed,” lawyer Jeffrey Coopersmith stated.
Holmes and Balwani had been additionally romantic companions for a lot of the corporate’s historical past, one thing the pair tried to maintain secret from workers. As she mounted her protection, Holmes tried to painting herself as a sufferer of Balwani’s abuse. Balwani has denied these claims.
