Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Set to Throw Ex-Boyfriend Sunny Balwani Under the Bus
- She is reportedly ready to accuse the former president and COO of the company of emotional and sexual abuse. The two were originally charged in June 2018 on two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and nine counts of wire fraud.
Elizabeth Holmes, founder and chief executive of Theranos Inc., a private health care and life sciences company, who’s facing several fraud charges, plans to accuse her ex-boyfriend Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani of emotionally and sexually abusing her, which compromised her judgment during the time of the alleged crimes.
The Palo Alto, California-based Theranos was aiming to revolutionize medical laboratory testing through allegedly innovative methods for drawing blood, testing blood, and interpreting the resulting patient data to improve outcomes and lower health care costs. Balwani, 56, was the former president and COO of Theranos Inc. Holmes, 37, had founded Theranos in 2003 as a 19-year-old college dropout and was hailed and celebrated as a Silicon Valley whiz-kid.
The shocking revelations come three days before the Aug. 31 jury selection in the trial. They were made in newly unsealed legal filings in Holmes’ case, which were released on Aug. 28. Opening remarks are set to begin on Sept. 8 in a federal court in San Jose, California.
Holmes and Balwani were originally charged in June 2018 on two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and nine counts of wire fraud. According to the indictment unsealed on June 15, 2018, Holmes and Balwani had engaged in a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud investors and a separate scheme to defraud doctors and patients, and both schemes entailed promotion. If convicted, each of them could face 20 years in prison and fines of $250,000, plus restitution, for each count of wire fraud and for each conspiracy count.
The trial has been delayed multiple times by the COVID-19 pandemic and by the birth of Holmes’ child on July 10 of this year.
Balwani faces similar charges in a separate trial scheduled for next year.
NPR reports that the new court papers “disclose the degree to which Holmes is preparing to argue that Balwani controlled, manipulated and abused her.”
NPR reports that the new court papers “disclose the degree to which Holmes is preparing to argue that Balwani controlled, manipulated and abused her.”
Court documents reveal that at the trial, Holmes plans to describe how he controlled how she ate, how she dressed and with whom she spoke. Holmes will also testify accusing Balwani of monitoring her calls, text messages and emails. Court papers also say that Balwani was physically violent with Holmes, throwing “hard, sharp objects” at her. There is a reference to sexual violence as well. Holmes’ lawyers intend to call psychologist Mindy Mechanic, an expert in intimate partner abuse, who evaluated Holmes for 14 hours.
Holmes plans to argue that Balwani’s alleged mental abuse resulted in several mental health conditions, including intimate partner abuse syndrome, posttraumatic stress disorder and depression. As per the court paper, Holmes is expected to argue that Balwani’s actions were equivalent to “dominating her and erasing her capacity to make decisions,” including her ability to “deceive her victims.”
In a court motion to hold separate trials, Balwani’s attorney Jeffrey Coopersmith called Holmes’ allegations are “deeply offensive” to his client and are “devastating personally to him, and highly and unfairly prejudicial to his defense of this case.”
(Top photo: File photo of Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes and Chief Operating Officer Sunny Balwani addressing the company’s staff in 2015 at the company’s then-headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif.)