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Disgraced Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes to Serve 11 Years, Three Months in Prison, Ending the Latest Chapter in the Story of the Failed Clinical Laboratory Company

Judge will decide the restitution Holmes must pay to defrauded Theranos investors at future court date; Ex-COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani to be sentenced next month

Clinical laboratory leaders and anatomic pathologists who closely followed the fraud trial of Elizabeth Holmes may have wondered how the Theranos founder and ex-CEO would be punished for her crimes. Now we know.

On Friday, a federal court judge sentenced Holmes to 135 months—11.25 years—in prison in the culmination of her conviction on three felony counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy, according to NBC Bay Area News.

Late into the four-hour sentencing hearing, Holmes tearfully spoke, according to a twitter post by NBC reporter Scott Budman, who was in the courtroom. “I am devastated by my failings,” Holmes said. “I have felt deep pain for what people went through because I have failed them … To investors, patients, I am sorry.”

Davila ordered Holmes to surrender to authorities on April 27 to begin her time behind bars. She is free until that time. Her upcoming prison term caps off one of the biggest downfalls ever of an American entrepreneur.

[We first published this article in our Dark Daily E-Briefings newsletter. Sign up for free here to stay informed on the lab industry’s most important news and events.]

Elizabeth Holmes

Elizabeth Holmes (above), founder and former CEO of Theranos, the now defunct clinical laboratory company, as she enters the federal courthouse in San Jose, Calif., prior to her sentencing on Friday. In January, Holmes was convicted on three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy. Last summer, Theranos’ former CLIA laboratory director, pathologist Adam Rosendorff, MD, expressed remorse over his testimony which led to Holmes’ defense team requesting a new trial. The judge denied that request and allowed the sentencing of Holmes to proceed as scheduled. (Photo copyright: Jim Wilson/The New York Times.)

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Defense Lawyers Plan to Appeal

Dean Johnson, JD, a California criminal defense lawyer, told NBC Bay Area News during live coverage of the hearing on Friday that Holmes’ defense team will appeal her conviction.

“I have no doubt there will be an appeal in this case,” Johnson said.

Judge Edward Davila, who oversaw Holmes’ trial and sentencing hearing in US District Court in San Jose, Calif., estimated that the total loss for Theranos investors was $121 million. Investors had committed funds to support the company’s flawed Edison blood testing technology. A separate restitution hearing for Holmes will be scheduled for a later date.

Beyond the sentencing, Holmes, 38, will be saddled by infamy for the rest of her life, with her past reputation as a charismatic innovator ruined.

In “Theranos Ex-CEO Elizabeth Holmes Convicted on Three Counts of Wire Fraud and One Count of Conspiracy to Commit Fraud after Seven Days of Jury Deliberations,” we covered how a jury convicted Holmes in January on four charges of investor and wire fraud after a four-month trial. She faced up to 20 years in prison on each of those counts.

Another Theranos executive, former Chief Operating Officer and President Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, faces sentencing on Dec. 7. A jury found Balwani guilty of two counts of conspiracy and 10 counts of wire fraud in July.

“The judge [said] evidence shows Elizabeth Holmes was leader of the company, but not necessarily the leader of the criminal acts,” Budman tweeted. Those words clearly pointed to Balwani, who Holmes’ defense team had painted as exerting control over her and the company.

Prosecutors Sought a Stiffer Sentence for Holmes

Prosecutors had asked Davila to sentence Holmes to 15 years in prison, arguing that her conviction represented “one of the most substantial white collar offenses Silicon Valley or any other district has seen,” according to NBC Bay Area News, which cited court documents. The government also wanted her to pay $803 million in restitution.

Holmes’ defense team, however, wished for no prison time at all, instead asking that Holmes serve time under house arrest. “If a period of confinement is necessary, the defense suggests that a term of 18 months or less, with a subsequent supervised release period that requires community service, will amply meet that charge,” her lawyers wrote in a court filing.

Prior to the sentencing, Davila received 130 letters supporting Holmes and asking for leniency, NPR reported. Among them was a note from William “Billy” Evans, Holmes’ partner.

“If you are to know Liz, it is to know that she is honest, humble, selfless, and kind beyond what most people have ever experienced,” Evans wrote, NPR reported. “Please let her be free.”

Holmes and Evans have a 16-month-old son together, and she is pregnant with the couple’s second child. Her first pregnancy caused her trial to be rescheduled. Prior to last week’s sentencing, some reporters covering the trial speculated that because Holmes was the mother of an infant—and now pregnant again—the judge might be more lenient in sentencing. The 11-year, four-month sentence indicates that the judge was not much influenced by that factor.

Last Minute Pitch for New Trial Failed

Holmes’ legal wranglings continued until the very end.

On Nov. 7, Davila denied her motion for a new trial. Holmes’ lawyers had argued that key prosecution witness Adam Rosendorff, MD—a pathologist who was former laboratory director at the company—expressed remorse about his own 2021 testimony during an attempt to visit Holmes’ residence on August 2022. Dark Daily covered this event in “Clinical Pathologist Once Again at the Center of a National News Story as Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Seeks New Trial.”

However, Rosendorff later told the court that he stood by his testimony about problems with Theranos’ blood testing technology.

In denying the request for a new trial, Davila wrote, “The court finds Dr. Rosendorff’s statements under oath to be credible,” according to The Washington Post.

From Teen Founder to Disgraced Entrepreneur

Holmes founded Theranos in 2003 at age 19 while she was attending Stanford University as a chemical engineering major. She dropped out of Stanford as a sophomore to focus on her new company.

Theranos claimed its technology—known as Edison—could perform diagnostics tests using a finger prick and a micro-specimen vial instead of a needle and several Vacutainers of blood. The company said it could return results to patients and clinicians in four hours for about half of the cost of typical lab test fees.

However, the promise of this technology began to unravel in 2015 following an investigative article by The Wall Street Journal that revealed the company ran only a handful of tests using its technology, instead relying on traditional testing for most of its specimen work.

Following The Journal’s exposé, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sanctioned Theranos and Holmes in 2016. Meanwhile, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigated Holmes for raising hundreds of millions from investors by exaggerating or making false statements about the company’s technology and financial performance.

In 2018, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted Holmes and Balwani, and Theranos closed shortly after.

Convictions Validated Pathologists’, Hospital Lab Leaders’ Concerns

Fortunately, the Theranos saga has not stunted investment in healthcare technology startups. Spending was in the tens of billions in 2021, although that number has dropped this year as the COVID-19 pandemic has waned, according to TechCrunch. Nevertheless, it is safe to assume that healthcare tech investors are scrutinizing scientific data from startups more thoroughly because of the Theranos fraud case.

Meanwhile, the saga of Theranos continues to leave a bad taste in the mouths of many clinical laboratory managers and pathologists. That’s because, during the peak period of adulation and spectacular news coverage about Elizabeth Holmes and her plans to totally disrupt the clinical laboratory industry, hospital and health system CEOs believed that they would be able to downsize their in-house medical laboratories and obtain lab tests from Theranos at savings of 50% or more. Consequently, during the years 2013 through the end of 2015, some hospital lab leaders saw requests for capital investment in their labs denied or delayed.

One example of how hospital CEOs embraced news of Theranos’ blood testing technology took place at the Cleveland Clinic. Elizabeth Holmes did such a good job selling the benefits of the Edison technology, then-CEO, Toby Cosgrove, MD, placed Theranos at number three on its list of top ten medical innovations for 2015.

In later years, Cosgrove admitted that no one at Cleveland Clinic or its pathologists were allowed to examine the analyzers and evaluate the technology.

It was for these reasons that the demise of Theranos was welcomed by many hospital lab administrators and pathologists. The fact that two of Theranos’ senior executives have been convicted of fraud validates many of the serious concerns that medical laboratory professionals had at that time, but which most major news reporters and media ignored and failed to report to the public.

Scott Wallask

Related Information:

Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Sentenced to More than 11 Years in Prison

Elizabeth Holmes Is Sentenced to More than 11 Years for Fraud

Theranos Ex-CEO Elizabeth Holmes Convicted on Three Counts of Wire Fraud and One Count of Conspiracy to Commit Fraud after Seven Days of Jury Deliberations

Prosecutors Push 15-year Sentence for Theranos’ CEO Holmes

Elizabeth Holmes Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison for Theranos Fraud

Clinical Pathologist Once Again at the Center of a National News Story as Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Seeks New Trial

Bid for New Trial Fails, Elizabeth Holmes Awaits Sentencing

Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani Convicted by a Jury on 12 Counts of Fraud in Theranos Trial

Hot Startup Theranos Has Struggled with Its Blood-Test Technology

Class-Action Lawsuit Filed on Behalf of Patients who Purchased Theranos Testing Services Seeks Damages from Elizabeth Holmes, Ramesh Balwani, and Walgreens

Damages sought include reimbursement of costs for voided clinical laboratory tests as well as an injunction ‘to prevent Theranos and Walgreens from engaging in further misrepresentations and unfair conduct’

Theranos founder and ex-CEO Elizabeth Holmes and ex-COO/President Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani have been found guilty on multiple counts of fraud and now await sentencing in federal criminal court. But the pair’s legal entanglements are not yet over. A class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of patients who purchased Theranos clinical laboratory testing services between November 2013 and June 2016 is weaving its way through the legal system.

Defendants in the civil case include Holmes and Balwani as well as Theranos, Inc., Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) and Walgreens Arizona Drug Company.

According to JND Legal Administration, a class action administration services provider with offices in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, and Seattle, the class-action lawsuit has been filed in the US District Court for the District of Arizona in Phoenix. While no court date has been set, the trial is expected to occur in 2023, a news release states.

“The lawsuit claims, among other things, that these blood testing services were not capable of producing reliable results, that the defendants concealed the blood testing services’ unreliability, that Walgreens knew that the blood testing services were unreliable and not market-ready, that the defendants conspired to commit fraud on consumers, that Theranos’ ‘tiny’ blood testing technology (blood drawn with finger pricks) was still in development, and that the customers who were subject to ‘tiny’ Theranos blood draws by Walgreens employees gave their consent to those blood draws under false pretenses,” the news release notes.

If the defendants are found liable, plaintiffs, who could number in the hundreds of thousands, could receive money or benefits. The Mercury News reported that Arizona’s attorney general had identified 175,000 consumers who purchased tests from Theranos/Walgreens at an average cost of $60 per test.

Elizabeth Holmes and Ramesh Balwani

A class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of patients who purchased Theranos blood testing services at a Walgreens or Theranos location includes as defendants company founder/CEO Elizabeth Holmes (left), ex-Theranos President/COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani (right), as well as Theranos, Inc., Walgreens Boots Alliance, and Walgreens Arizona Drug Company. The trial is expected to begin in 2023. It will no doubt draw the attention of clinical laboratory directors and pathologists who followed the Holmes/Balwani fraud cases very closely. (Photo copyright: The Wall Street Journal.)

Federal Court Upholds Class Certification

The Top Class Actions news site notes that in 2021 Walgreens and Balwani unsuccessfully appealed to get the class-action lawsuit against them decertified.

According to the Arizona Theranos, Inc. Litigation website, the court has certified one Class and three Subclasses:

  • Class: All purchasers of Theranos testing services, including consumers who paid out-of-pocket, through health insurance, or through any other collateral source between November 2013 and June 2016.
  • Arizona Subclass: All purchasers of Theranos testing services in Arizona between November 2013 and June 2016.
  • California Subclass: All purchasers of Theranos testing services in California, between September 2013 and June 2016.
  • Walgreens Edison Subclass: All purchasers of Theranos testing services who were subjected to “tiny” blood draws (finger pricks) by a Walgreens employee between November 2013 and March 2015.

Lieff Cabraser Heimann and Bernstein LLP—one of two law firms serving as “Class Counsel” in the litigation—states on its website that, in October 2016, US District Judge H. Russel Holland consolidated four proposed consumer class action fraud lawsuits against Theranos and appointed the San Francisco-based firm as co-lead counsel. Seattle-based Keller Rohrback LLP is co-lead counsel.

‘There Is No Money’

“The lawsuit seeks damages, including reimbursement of the amounts paid by consumers for the voided tests, as well as an injunction to prevent Theranos and Walgreens from engaging in further misrepresentations and unfair conduct,” the Lieff Cabraser website states.

In its notice to potential members of the class action, JND Legal Administration states the “defendants contend that they did not do anything wrong, and they are not liable for any harm alleged by the plaintiffs.” In addition, the notice points out, “There is no money available now, and there is no guarantee that there will be.”

Where could money come from to pay plaintiffs? Likely not from Theranos or Holmes. Though Theranos reached a peak valuation of $9 billion in 2014, it owed at least $60 million to unsecured creditors when the company was dissolved in 2018, USA Today reported. After turning over its assets and intellectual property, Theranos anticipated having only $5 million to distribute to creditors.

And Forbes reported that Holmes’ net worth dropped from $3.6 billion to $0 in 2016.

However, Balwani, who netted nearly $40 million in 2000 when he sold shares of software company Commerce One, has an estimated net worth of $90 million, according to Wealthypipo. As of 2022, Walgreens Boots Alliance is ranked number 18 on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.

The Arizona Theranos Litigation website points out that the suit does not seek damages or other relief for personal injury, emotional distress, retesting costs, or medical care costs. Any Theranos/Walgreens customer intent on pursuing such legal action would need to exclude themselves from the class action case and proceed with separate litigation. The deadline to opt out of the class-action lawsuit is September 12, 2022.

And so, though clinical laboratory directors and pathologists may have thought the saga of Theranos ended following Balwani’s conviction, it apparently continues. It is anyone’s guess what is to come.

Andrea Downing Peck

Related Information:

If You Purchased Theranos Blood Testing Services, including At a Walgreens Store, a Class Action Lawsuit May Affect Your Rights

United States District Court, District of Arizona: Second Amended Complaint, Case 2:16-cv-02138-HRH

Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes: Judge Grants Class Action in Civil Suit Led by San Jose Resident

Theranos Allegedly Voided 31,000 Test Reports Provided to Walgreens Customers

Walgreens Breaks Ties with Theranos, Will Shutter all 40 Wellness Centers

Balwani and Walgreens Lose Most Appeals in Theranos Blood Test Class Action Lawsuit

Blood-Testing Company Theranos Will Dissolve, Pay Creditors

Billionaire Profile: Elizabeth Holmes

Tale of Two Trials: Unlike Ex-Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, COO/President Ramesh ‘Sunny’ Balwani Found Guilty of All Charges

Balwani’s lawyers opted not to have their client testify in his own defense and called only two witnesses, while Holmes’ defense team offered jurors the opportunity to hear her testimony

Elizabeth Holmes and Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani dreamed of revolutionizing the clinical laboratory blood-testing industry with their now defunct Theranos Edison device, which they claimed could perform multiple tests with a single finger prick of blood. Instead, they became the rare Silicon Valley executives to be convicted of fraud.

On July 7, ex-COO/President Balwani was convicted on all 12 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy charges in his federal fraud trial. Holmes, Theranos’ founder/CEO and former romantic partner to Balwani, avoided convictions six months ago in January on seven of the 11 counts she faced for her role in exaggerating the accuracy and reliability of the company’s Edison blood-testing device and providing false financial claims to investors.

“Once again, a jury has determined that the fraud at Theranos reached the level of criminal conspiracy,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Sean Ragan in a press release posted on Twitter following the verdict. “The FBI has spent years investigating this investment fraud scheme with our partners at USPIS and the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations. Lies, deceit, and criminal actions cannot replace innovation and success.”

How did the trials differ? That’s the question many clinical laboratory directors and pathologists who followed Theranos’ legal saga may be asking, as well as how the Theranos trials reflect on their own duties under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA).

Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani
 
Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani (above center), former COO/President of Theranos, is shown leaving the federal courthouse in San Jose, Calif., on July 7 after he was found guilty on all 12 counts of fraud, a verdict more severe than ex-CEO and Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes received in January for similar charges. Clinical laboratory directors and medical laboratory scientists have been closely monitoring both trails. (Photo copyright: Jim Wilson/The New York Times.)

Balwani’s Age and Experience May Have Worked Against Him

Michael Weinstein, JD, a former Justice Department prosecutor who is the Chair of White-collar Litigation at Cole Schotz, told The New York Times that Balwani’s age and his trial date—three months after Holmes’ conviction—worked against him. Balwani, 57, could not present himself as a young and inexperienced tech executive easily manipulated by those around him, as Holmes, 38, had attempted to do.

“Holmes could come off as a bit naïve, and [her defense team] tried to sell that,” Weinstein said of the former Stanford University dropout who founded Theranos in 2003 when she was 19.

In Holmes’ case the verdict was mixed, with jurors acquitting her of the patient fraud counts but unable to reach a decision on some of the investor fraud counts, Bloomberg reported.

Mr. Balwani, however, “came off as more of an experienced technology executive,” Weinstein added.

Weinstein pointed out that because the government’s case against Balwani mirrored its case against Holmes, prosecutors had time to refine their strategy before making a second appearance inside US District Court Judge Edward Davila’s San Jose courtroom.

“The streamlined presentation, the streamlined evidence, the streamlined narrative—all was beneficial for the government in the end,” he said.

Ever since opening arguments in March, Balwani’s legal team portrayed him to the jurors as a loyal partner who believed in Theranos’ technology and “put his money where his mouth is,” the Guardian noted.

Prosecutors, however, made the case that Balwani had a hands-on role in running the lab and was the source of Theranos’ overinflated financial projections.

Balwani invested about $15 million in the startup between 2009 and 2011 and never cashed in when his stake grew to $500 million. That money evaporated when Theranos collapsed.

In all, 24 witnesses testified against Balwani. He was ultimately convicted of all 12 counts he faced:

  • Two counts of conspiring with Holmes,
  • Six counts of defrauding investors, and
  • Four counts of patient fraud.

Major Differences in Trial Testimony

The Balwani trial made headlines due to COVID-19 pandemic related delays, but otherwise did not produce the news-generating moments that punctuated Holmes’ nearly four-month-long court appearance. Thirty-two witnesses appeared at the Holmes trial, including Secretary of Defense James Mattis, according to CNN.

Another significant difference in the two trials was that Holmes testified in her own defense. Holmes spent nearly 24 hours on the stand, CNN Business noted at that time, during which she cast the blame for Theranos’ failings on those around her, including Balwani.

In one of her trial’s most dramatic moments, a tearful Holmes accused Balwani of emotional and sexual abuse, including forcing her to have sex, which Dark Daily covered in “Balwani and Holmes’ Personal Relationship Takes Center Stage in Criminal Trial, Fueling Continued Public Interest in Theranos Fraud Saga.” Balwani denied those allegations.

ABC News Rebecca Jarvis, host and creator of the podcast “The Dropout,” believes Balwani’s decision not to testify worked against him.

“[The abuse claims] did not come up at his trial, but during [Holmes’] seven days of testimony, they were a big portion of what she talked about,” Jarvis said in an ABC NewsStart Here” podcast. “The biggest difference is that he didn’t take the stand to say, ‘I didn’t do this,’ or … raise his own objections to the claims against him.

“You think about a jury who is supposed to know nothing about any of [the defendant’s] backstory, and they’re shown these things like … case pictures of [Holmes] so much younger than [Balwani], supposedly having to rely on him for his expertise,” Jarvis added.

“You can imagine where the jury may have found that presentation more sympathetic than Sunny Balwani who had experience,” she said.

Text May Have Been Balwani’s Undoing

Balwani’s defense team called only two witnesses:

  • A naturopathic physician who used Theranos’ blood-testing lab, and
  • A technical consultant who Balwani’s legal team hired to assess the accessibility of patient data in Theranos’ Laboratory Information System (LIS), which the defense argued could have provided evidence of the accuracy of Theranos’ test results.

Attorney Jennifer Kennedy Park, JD, a partner at Cleary Gottlieb, told Yahoo Finance the LIS database may have played a role in the jury’s verdict as well.

“This verdict also signals the jurors did not buy Balwani’s highly speculative argument that the database Theranos lost in 2018 would have proven his innocence,” Park said.

In a statement to CNN Business, Balwani attorney Jeffrey Coopersmith, JD, of Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe, LLP, said the defense is exploring avenues to possibly fight the jury’s decision.

“We are obviously disappointed with the verdicts,” he said. “We plan to study and consider all of Mr. Balwani’s options including an appeal.”

Following the verdicts, Judge Davila raised Balwani’s bail to $750,000 and set a Nov. 15 sentencing date. Holmes is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 26.

Balwani’s own words may have been his final undoing. During closing arguments, prosecutors again showed jurors a text message Balwani sent to Holmes in 2015, The New York Times reported.

“I am responsible for everything at Theranos,” he wrote. “All have been my decisions too.” 

Clinical laboratory directors and medical laboratory scientists will no doubt continue to monitor the fallout from these two extraordinary federal fraud trials. There’s still much to learn about CLIA-laboratory director responsibility and how the government plans to prevent future lab testing fraud from taking place.

Andrea Downing Peck

Related Information:

Tweet: FBI San Francisco

Theranos Trial: Legal Saga Reaches Final Chapter as Sunny Balwani Faces Verdict

No. 2 Theranos Executive Found Guilty of 12 Counts of Fraud

The Key Moments from Elizabeth Holmes’ Trial

Theranos Ex-President Balwani Found Guilty of Fraud

ABC: Start Here Podcast

Theranos: Elizabeth Holmes Co-Defendant Sunny Balwani Found Guilty of All 12 Counts

Former Theranos COO Is Guilty of Federal Fraud

Closing Statements Made in Trial of Sunny Balwani

Theranos Trial: Legal Saga Reaches Final Chapter as Sunny Balwani Faces Verdict

Former Theranos President’s Defense Rests in Criminal-Fraud Trial

Former Theranos Executive Sunny Balwani’s Fraud Trial Heads to Jury

Legal Experts Predict Ex-Theranos President/COO Ramesh ‘Sunny’ Balwani Faces Uphill Battle for Acquittal

‘Balwani is no Johnny Depp,’ says an expert on juror behavior, as prosecution and defense rest in fraud trial of the former executive of the now-defunct lab test company

Clinical Laboratory directors and pathologists continue to focus like a laser beam on the trials of former founders and executives of the now-defunct blood test company Theranos. But as the criminal fraud trial of ex-president and COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani comes to a close, legal experts maintain the 57-year-old businessman may face an uphill battle to win an acquittal.

Balwani faces 12 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud while serving as second in command at Theranos, the former Silicon Valley medical laboratory test startup. The fraud trials of Balwani and Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes have made headlines for more than a year as the two once-high-flying executives face a reckoning for allegedly defrauding patients, investors, and physicians about their proprietary Edison blood-testing device, which they claimed could conduct hundreds of blood tests using a finger-prick of blood.

Before resting their case, Balwani’s defense team called only two witnesses: information-technology consultant Richard Sonnier III, and naturopathic physician Tracy Wooten, NMD, of Arizona, who sent more than 100 patients to Theranos.

According to The Wall Street Journal(WSJ), Wooten “backtracked some of her support for Theranos on the stand.”

The WSJ reported that Sonnier’s testimony “had been hotly litigated by attorneys,” and that US District Judge Edward Davila ruled in May that Sonnier would be permitted to testify—with limitations—about the Theranos Laboratory Information System (LIS), which contained patient test results.

Theranos LIS Not Accessible to Government Prosecutors

Sonnier was hired by Balwani’s legal team to assess the accessibility of data held in the LIS, which the defense believed would have provided evidence of Theranos test accuracy.

The WSJ noted that in 2018, the year Balwani and Holmes were indicted, the government subpoenaed a copy of the LIS, which Theranos provided. However, the LIS data was delivered on an encrypted hard drive.

“Not only was the hard drive itself encrypted, but the data it contained was also encrypted with a separate passcode required,” the WSJ wrote. “The government didn’t have the passcode to access the data, and a day or two after sending the hard drive to US attorneys, Theranos officials ordered the entire original database dismantled, according to court testimony.”

The WSJ reported that Sonnier testified he was unable to access the encrypted data on a backup hard drive despite having a list of possible passcodes found in Theranos documents. Sonnier also testified that it would have been “very straightforward” to reassemble the original LIS and “recover that data.” The missing password wouldn’t be an issue, Sonnier testified.

Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani
Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani (above) ex-president and COO of now defunct blood test startup Theranos, faces 12 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. In an interview with Insider, an expert in conducting jury research, focus groups, witness preparation, and jury selections said that “both the evidence and the way Balwani is perceived would affect his chances of being acquitted.” And that, “He has a lot of problems that [Elizabeth Holmes] didn’t have. He kind of fits the part from a juror’s standpoint.” Clinical laboratory directors will learn much from how Balwani’s role as the primary decision-maker in the Theranos lab is perceived by the jury. (Photo copyright: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/Newsweek.)

The Prosecution Rests

Federal prosecutors rested their case last month after calling more than 24 witnesses. The government alleges Balwani worked closely with Holmes and conspired with her to defraud investors and patients about the startup’s blood testing technology. They allege he knew about the accuracy and reliability problems that plagued Theranos’ Edison blood-testing device.

Holmes was convicted in January on three of the nine fraud counts and one of two conspiracy counts. She was acquitted on four counts related to defrauding patients, one charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three charges of wire fraud.

While prosecutors failed to persuade jurors that Holmes intentionally sought to defraud patients, Bloomberg legal reporter Joel Rosenblatt told the Bloomberg Law Podcast he believes Balwani is “inherently more vulnerable” on the patient-related fraud counts because he “oversaw” the operation of Theranos’ clinical laboratories.

“As a result of that role, [Balwani] was more aware of not only the faulty Theranos blood test results, but all the problems that employees were pointing out about those results,” Rosenblatt added. “So, he was the first high-level executive to be dealing with those complaints.”

Rosenblatt noted that Balwani’s defense centers not only on trying to show that Theranos’ proprietary blood-testing machine worked, but that it “works maybe well enough or worked as well as other [medical] laboratories.” He said Balwani also maintains that Holmes, as CEO and founder, was in charge long before he joined Theranos as president.

“It’s a difficult argument to make because all the emails show how cooperative they were, how closely they worked together. They were intimately involved but they were working side by side for years and really during the years where all the money started coming in,” Rosenblatt said in the podcast.

Jill Huntley Taylor, PhD, CEO of Taylor Trial Consulting, told Insider that Balwani has an uphill battle to win an acquittal.

“He has a lot of problems that [Elizabeth Holmes] didn’t have,” Taylor said. “He kind of fits the part from a juror’s standpoint. He’s got the power, the authority, he’s got the personal traits that make the allegations more credible from a perceptual standpoint for the jury.”

In contrast, Taylor says, “People don’t love Elizabeth Holmes, but I think what she had going for her was that she pitched herself as a true believer in the company. She was the voice and the face of Theranos.”

‘Balwani is not Johnny Depp’

While a jury recently awarded actor Johnny Depp significantly more damages than actress Amber Heard in their well-publicized defamation trial, Taylor maintains jurors are unlikely to view Balwani as a sympathetic figure.

“Sunny Balwani is not Johnny Depp. He doesn’t have the halo that Johnny Depp has, or the fan base,” Taylor said. “He does not present as that type of person, so I don’t know that the jurors will have any sympathy towards him. And I think they would actually be more inclined to believe Holmes’ allegations.”

The Theranos fraud trials of Holmes and Balwani continue to capture the attention of clinical laboratory directors and pathologists who are now witnessing the final chapters in the downfall of the one-time Silicon Valley power couple. 

Andrea Downing Peck

Related Information:

Former Theranos President’s Defense Rests in Criminal-Fraud Trial

Will Sunny Balwani Beat Charges of Patient Fraud?

Elizabeth Holmes’ Ex-boyfriend Sunny Balwani ‘Is No Johnny Depp,’ Says an Expert on Juror Behavior

Legal Victory for Johnny Depp after He and Amber Heard found Liable for Defamation

The United States of America vs Elizabeth A. Holmes and Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani

Will Sunny Balwani Beat Charges of Patient Fraud?

Federal Fraud Trial of Former Theranos President/COO Ramesh ‘Sunny’ Balwani Postponed until June 7

No explanation for the delay was provided by court after nine weeks of testimony in the prosecution of the former clinical laboratory executive

Former Theranos president/chief operating officer Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani’s often-delayed fraud trial was scheduled to resume on May 27 with a full day of defense witness testimony. It will now be delayed until June 7.

According to NBC Bay Area, a court assistant announced the delay but did not provide a reason for the postponement. A copy of the clerk’s notice posted on Twitter by Law360 also provided no further details. Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers must now wait several more months to learn what may be next revealed in testimony during this trial.

It is also yet one more delay in Balwani’s trial. His original trial date was January 2022 before being rescheduled for February. The needs for COVID-19 pandemic protocols further delayed the start multiple times until opening arguments began March 22 in a federal court room in San Jose, Calif.

One part of the trial has concluded. On May 20, the government rested its case against Balwani, who faces 12 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud while serving as second in command at Theranos, the now defunct Silicon Valley medical laboratory startup.

Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani
Former Theranos president and COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani (above) faces 12 charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud while serving as chief operating officer of Theranos, the company that boldly declared it would disrupt the clinical laboratory testing industry. His trial, which began in March in US District Court in San Jose, Calif., is now delayed until June 7, when his defense attorneys will begin their first full day of witness testimony. (Photo copyright: Stephen Lam/Reuters/The New York Times.)

According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), nine weeks of testimony in US District Court in San Jose, Calif., included testimony from 24 witnesses. Prosecutors aimed to convince jurors Balwani controlled much of the day-to-day decision-making at Theranos and was a full participant in the fraud scheme.

NBC Bay Area stated prosecutors worked to link Balwani to two key decisions:

  • The rollout of the failed Edison blood testing device in Walgreens, and
  • The company’s improper use of the Pfizer logo on a report to Walgreens executives that appeared to validate Theranos’ technology.

Before this latest postponement, Balwani’s attorneys had begun their client’s defense by putting a naturopathic physician from Arizona on the stand. The witness testified to sending more than 150 patients to Theranos and to using the company’s blood tests for herself, the WSJ reported.

In addition, Jeffrey Coopersmith, JD, one of Balwani’s attorneys and Partner at Orrick Herrington and Sutcliffe, LLP, made a verbal motion for an acquittal at the conclusion of the government’s case, which the judge deferred.

Prosecution Strategy Angers Theranos Customers

Bloomberg reported that prosecutors followed the previous outline used to gain the conviction of Elizabeth Holmes, founder and former CEO of Theranos, with many of the same witnesses from her trial reappearing on the stand to testify in the Balwani trial.

Prosecutors primarily focused their case on the injury to investors, which has angered some former Theranos customers.

“I feel like I belong to a group of people who were on the receiving end of a crime,” said Erin Tompkins—a Theranos customer who testified against both Holmes and Balwani—outside the courthouse shortly after finishing her testimony in the Balwani case, Bloomberg reported.

According to CNBC, Tompkins testified she was misdiagnosed as having HIV after having her blood drawn from a Theranos device at a Walgreens in Arizona.

“Despite the dedication and support of prosecutors, patient witnesses have been treated as peripheral” compared to the investors, Tompkins told Bloomberg. “We were defrauded because we trusted them with our blood and however many dollars for the test. But we weren’t robbed of millions of dollars.”

Susanna Stefanek, editorial manager at Apple Inc. who served on the Holmes jury, told Bloomberg, “[The prosecution] didn’t really prove that these patients were persuaded to get these blood tests by something she said or did, or even the advertising. The connection between Elizabeth Holmes and the patients was not that strong to us.”

Proving Patient Fraud

Michael Weinstein, JD, a former federal prosecutor turned Chair of White-Collar Litigation and Government at Cole Schotz in New Jersey, told Bloomberg that to convict Balwani of patient fraud, prosecutors must prove Balwani knew what was going on inside Theranos and that his misrepresentations caused patients to suffer.

“The government wants to show there was an inconsistency between what he was learning internally versus what he was saying externally,” Weinstein said.

With the Balwani trial likely to conclude this month, clinical laboratory directors and pathologists who have closely followed Theranos’ rise and fall should prepare for the final chapter in the saga. 

Andrea Downing Peck

Related Information:

Sunny Balwani Trial Postponed Until June 7: Court

Did Sunny Balwani Make Decision to Use Pfizer Logo When Promoting Theranos?

Former Theranos Patient Testifies That a Blood Test at Walgreens Came Back with False Positive for HIV

Prosecution Rests in Trial of Former Theranos President Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani

Elizabeth Holmes Beat Charges of Patient Fraud. Will Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani?

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