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.”
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.
ABC NewsRebecca 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 News “Start 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.
“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.
“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.
‘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 (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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
Company was accused of manipulating clinical laboratory reports from previous COVID-19 tests to forge new results, and sending “negative” test results to patients even though their tests had never been completed
National COVID-19 testing chain Sameday Health (a.k.a., Sameday Technologies) will pay $22.5 million—and its contracted doctor an additional $3.9 million—to settle a case with the City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County Attorney’s Office over alleged falsifying, faking, and failing to deliver more than 500 COVID-19 test results to consumers.
According to an announcement from the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, the settlements require Sameday Health and physician Jeffrey Toll, MD, to pay restitution and civil penalties, and to comply with permanent injunctions prohibiting them from participating in the alleged activities that led to the City Attorney’s investigation.
“If you get a negative test, you assume it’s safe to go to work, visit family and friends, or take a vacation. But the victims of this alleged scheme might unknowingly have spread COVID to others or failed to receive timely and appropriate care themselves,” Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer, JD, said in the announcement.
“We’ve intervened to protect consumers in numerous major COVID-related matters, but this may be the most significant consumer protection case to emerge from the pandemic,” he added.
Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer, JD, (above) teamed with Los Angeles CountyDistrict Attorney George Gascón to reach a $26 million settlement with Sameday Health of Venice, Calif., and its contracted physician over phony COVID-19 test results. “It’s beyond outrageous that anyone would falsify COVID tests, as we allege happened here,” Feuer said in a statement. Clinical laboratories will want to note the fervor at which state officials are pursuing million-dollar settlements in COVID-19 fraud cases. (Photo copyright: California Globe.)
The LA City Attorney’s Complaint Against Sameday Technologies
Sameday Technologies, which operates under the name Sameday Health, has 55 COVID-19 testing sites throughout the country, with 16 locations in Los Angeles County, including five in the city.
The complaint released by the LA City Attorney’s Office states that consumers “paid a premium to get a rapid COVID-19 PCR test from Sameday Technologies, Inc. (Sameday), a Venice, Calif.-based start-up turned national chain that promised reliable COVID-19 test results in 24- hours or less.”
Sameday did not own its own clinical laboratory and its primary third-party vendor labs “were only required to aim to deliver results to Sameday’s consumers within 24-hours or 48-hours of the laboratory receiving the consumers’ testing samples from Sameday, along with all of the paperwork and information necessary to track, process, and report the result.
“But Sameday, unable to meet its 24-hour guarantee, sent hundreds of customers fake test results and laboratory reports stating that they had tested negative for COVID-19, when in reality Sameday’s laboratories had not run (and in many cases had not even received) the consumers’ tests,” the attorneys’ complaint states.
In addition to forging and falsifying hundreds of test results, the LA City Attorney’s Office alleges Sameday committed insurance fraud by partnering with a doctor to steer insured customers into three-minute-long medically unnecessary consultations. Using a virtual call center of physicians, the attorney’s office states, Sameday “submitted claims to insurance companies with codes that falsely represented the length of the consultations, misrepresented the purpose of the tests and consults, and sometimes sought reimbursement for calls that never even happened.” The state maintains Sameday in one year made “millions of dollars” from California-based insurance claims alone.
Additional Settlement with LA-based Medical Internist
In a statement provided to the Los Angeles Times, Sameday Health stated it was founded in September 2020 “to make fast, reliable, COVID testing available to everyone.
“In the early days, amidst the chaos of massive surges in demand for services, and shortages in supplies, we failed to meet the standards for excellence our customers deserve,” the company said. “We have corrected the problems that arose back in 2020 and have made significant investments in compliance and systems to ensure that we meet our customers’ expectations. We agreed to settle with the City Attorney and the LA District Attorney in order to move forward and to allow the 1,200 men and women of Sameday to place their focus on providing top-level service to the communities we serve.”
Sameday’s founder and CEO Felix Huettenbach also is named in the settlement, having agreed to join with Sameday in paying $9.5 million in restitution and $13 million in penalties and to no longer access any test result or medical records belonging to any Sameday Health customers.
The Los Angeles Times reported that a separate $3.9 million settlement was reached with Jeffrey Toll, MD, a Los Angeles-based internist who serves as Medical Director for concierge medical practice Good Life Medical Services.
Feuer and Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón maintain Toll was a partner in Sameday Health’s alleged insurance fraud. In their complaint, they state patient phone calls would last two to three minutes and cost insurers about $450. In exchange, Toll allegedly gave Sameday Health a large portion of the profits, the complaint alleges.
Toll’s attorney D. Shawn Burkley, JD, of Werksman Jackson and Quinn LLP denied any wrongdoing, telling the Los Angeles Times, “We settled the matter, but we do not believe that Dr. Toll did anything that was unethical.”
Settlements with Toll and Sameday Health must still be approved by a judge.
Patients to Receive Refunds for PCR Clinical Laboratory Tests
In late April, Feuer announced that Californians who paid out of pocket for PCR tests from Sameday Health between October 1 and December 31, 2020, are expected to be issued refunds from the company as part of the settlement, Patch reported.
More than 800 million COVID-19 tests have been performed in the United States since the pandemic began in 2020, according to Our World in Data statistics. Though incidents of fraud have been rare, clinical laboratory managers and pathologists who read Dark Daily will be aware of the growing number of state and federal fraud investigations being opened since the COVID-19 pandemic began to wane.
The settlement with Sameday Health may serve to put other pandemic startups—and their clinical laboratories—on notice that deceitful and fraudulent practices will likely not go unnoticed by federal or state agencies.
Like Holmes, Balwani faces 12 counts of fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for allegedly misleading investors, patients, and others about blood-testing startup’s technology
Clinical laboratory managers and pathologists are buckling up as the next installment of the Theranos story gets underway, this time for the criminal fraud trial of ex-Theranos President and COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani.
In one text to Holmes, Balwani wrote, “I am responsible for everything at Theranos,” NBC Bay Area reported.
Partners in Everything, including Crime, Prosecutors Allege
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), prosecutors are following the Holmes trial playbook. They focused their opening arguments on the personal and working relationships between the pair, tying Balwani to Holmes’ crimes at the Silicon Valley blood-testing startup.
As second in command at Theranos, Balwani helped run the company from 2009 to 2016. He also invested $5 million in Theranos stock, while also underwriting a $13 million corporate loan.
“They were partners in everything, including their crimes,” Assistant US Attorney Robert Leach told jurors, the Mercury News reported. “The defendant and Holmes knew the rosy falsehoods that they were telling investors were contrary to the reality within Theranos.”
Leach maintained that Balwani was responsible for the phony financial projections Theranos gave investors in 2015 predicting $990 million in revenue when the company had less than $2 million in sales.
Former Theranos President and COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani (above) is seen arriving at the federal court in San Jose, California, for the start of his federal fraud trial. Clinical laboratory leaders and pathologists who followed the trial of ex-Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes will no doubt be interested in what can be learned from this trail as well. (Photo copyright: Jim Wilson/The New York Times.)
“This is a case about fraud. About lying and cheating to obtain money and property,” Leach added. Balwani “did this to get money from investors, and he did this to get money and business from paying patients who were counting on Theranos to deliver accurate and reliable blood tests so that they could make important medical decisions,” the WSJ reported.
Defense attorneys downplayed Balwani’s decision-making role within Theranos, pointing out that he did not join the start-up until six years after Holmes founded the company with the goal of revolutionizing blood testing by developing a device capable of performing blood tests using a finger-prick of blood.
“Sunny Balwani did not start Theranos. He did not control Theranos. Elizabeth Holmes, not Sunny, founded Theranos and built Theranos,” defense attorney Stephen Cazares, JD of San Francisco-based Orrick, said in his opening argument, the WSJ reported.
The trial was expected to begin in January but was delayed by the unexpected length of the Holmes trial. It was then pushed out to March when COVID-19 Omicron cases spiked in California during the winter.
Balwani’s trial is being held in the same San Jose courthouse where Holmes was convicted. Balwani, 56, is facing identical charges as Holmes, which include two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 10 counts of wire fraud. He has pleaded not guilty.
Holmes, who is currently free on a $500,000 bond, will be sentenced on Sept. 26, Dark Daily reported in January.
Judge Excludes Jurors for Watching Hulu’s ‘The Dropout’
During jury selection in March, some jurors acknowledged they were familiar with the case, causing delays in impaneling the 12-member jury and six alternates. US District Court Judge Edward Davila excluded two potential jurors because they had watched “The Dropout,” Hulu’s miniseries about Holmes and Theranos. Multiple other jurors were dropped because they had followed the Holmes trial in the news, Law360 reported.
When testimony began, prosecutors had a familiar name take the stand—whistleblower and former Theranos lab tech Erika Cheung, who provided key testimony in the Holmes trial. During her testimony, Cheung said she revealed to authorities what she saw at Theranos because “Theranos had gone to extreme lengths to [cover up] what was happening in the lab,” KRON4 in San Francisco reported.
“It was important to report the truth,” she added. “I felt that despite the risk—and I knew there could be consequences—people really need to see the truth of what was happening behind closed doors.”
Nevada State Public Health Laboratory (NSPHL) Director Mark Pandori, PhD, who served as Theranos’ lab director from December 2013 to May 2014, was the prosecution’s second witness. Pandori testified that receiving accurate results for some tests run through Theranos’ Edison blood testing machine was like “flipping a coin.”
“When you are working in a place like Theranos, you’re developing something new. And you want it to work. Quality control remained a problem for the duration of my time at the company. There was never a solution to poor performance,” Pandori testified, according to KRON4.
While the defense team has downplayed Balwani’s decision-making role—calling him a “shareholder”—Aron Solomon, JD, a legal analyst with Esquire Digital, maintains they may have a hard time convincing the jury that Balwani wasn’t a key player.
“There’s no way the defense is going to be successful in painting Sunny Balwani in the light simply as a shareholder,” he told NBC Bay Area. “We know that, literally, Sunny Balwani was intimately involved with Theranos, because he was intimately involved with Elizabeth Holmes,” Solomon added.
Little Media Buzz for Balwani, Unlike Holmes Trial
While the Holmes trial hogged the media spotlight and drew daily onlookers outside the courthouse, reporters covering Balwani’s court appearances describe a much different atmosphere.
“The sparse crowd and quiet atmosphere at US District Court in San Jose, Calif., felt nothing like the circus frenzy that engulfed the same sidewalk months earlier when his alleged co-conspirator and former girlfriend, Elizabeth Holmes, stood trial on the same charges,” The New York Times noted in its coverage of the Balwani trial.
The Balwani trial may not reach the same headline-producing fervor as the Holmes legal battle. However, clinical laboratory directors and pathologists who follow these proceedings will no doubt come away with important insights into how Theranos went so terribly wrong and how lab directors must act under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA).
