Elizabeth Holmes’ Business Partner Sunny Balwani Sentenced To 13 Years In Prison

Topline

Disgraced Theranos executive Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani was sentenced to 13 years in prison Wednesday over his role in helping founder and then-girlfriend Elizabeth Holmes mislead investors about the capabilities of the technology at the center of their blood testing company.

Key Facts

At the sentencing, U.S. District Court Judge Edward Davila said Balwani and Holmes “misled investors, they misled patients,” according to NBC News.

Prosecutors asked for Balwani to serve 15 years and pay more than $800 million in restitution.

Ahead of sentencing, Balwani’s lawyers argued Holmes was the one who ultimately made the decisions at Theranos that led to the company’s downfall, saying Balwani sincerely believed the technology was legitimate and did not profit from any fraud, asking that their client be handed probation or home confinement.

Balwani was convicted in July on 12 counts of fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Last month, Holmes was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison after being convicted on three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, all related to defrauding investors.

Key Background

Balwani served as president and COO of Theranos, and also secretly dated Holmes while they were running the company. Theranos claimed to have developed a machine that could run hundreds of blood tests using just one drop of blood, technology that could have disrupted the healthcare industry. Notable investors in the company included billionaires Rupert Murdoch and Larry Ellison, and former Secretary of State George Schultz served on the Theranos board. Holmes was praised as a rare young female founder in the tech space, and appeared on multiple magazine covers, including Forbes. However, the Theranos narrative began to fall apart in 2015, when the Wall Street Journal reported that the technology’s capacity did not live up to Holmes’ claims. Three years later, Holmes and Balwani were charged separately by federal prosecutors, who claimed the pair—who were secretly dating—knew they were lying about Theranos’ testing capabilities. Both pleaded not guilty. During her trial, Holmes claimed Balwani abused her throughout their relationship, which he denied.

Surprising Fact

During Holmes’ trial, text messages between her and Balwani revealed the two seemed to be aware of problems at Theranos, and were growing increasingly suspicious of fraud allegations and how to combat them by 2015, when the Wall Street Journal was investigating the company.

Tangent

Since Theranos’ explosive fall from grace, the story was portrayed in the Hulu series The Dropout, with Amanda Seyfried playing Holmes and Naveen Andrews cast as Balwani. In 2019, the duo were the subject of the HBO documentary The Inventor: Out For Blood In Silicon Valley.