After Elizabeth Holmes, another Theranos executive is sent to prison. Ramesh Sunny Balwani, the company’s president, chief operating officer and partner of Holmes, was found guilty of participating in a complex scheme that defrauded investors as well as patients.
His sentencing comes more than 4 years after the collapse of Theranos, which promised to revolutionize healthcare and specifically blood tests, but ended up just bringing a flawed technology to market, giving false results to thousands of patients and wasting hundreds of millions of dollars of the investors he had misled.
The court ruled that Balwani led the deception along with Holmes, who at her own trial had accused him of completely controlling her every move and subjecting her to psychological violence and abusive behaviour. The 13-year sentence is longer than the Theranos founder and CEO, who was sentenced last month to 11¼ years on four counts of criminal fraud.
The fraud
Balwani, 57, was convicted in July of seven counts of investor fraud and conspiracy and five counts of fraud and conspiracy against Theranos blood test patients. The authorities’ investigation found that devices Theranos promised a host of complicated blood tests “with just a few drops of blood” were unreliable and often produced inaccurate results about serious health conditions. Both Balwani and Holmes knew this as they lied about the company’s technology, finances and business prospects.
After his sentencing, Balwani spoke briefly to his family members, who had appeared in court to support him.
“We respectfully disagree with the outcome,” said defense attorney Jeffrey Coopersmith. “We are disappointed with the outcome and plan to appeal,” he added. Government prosecutors declined to comment.
