How many years will Sunny Balwani serve? Former Theranos executive sentenced to prison over fraud charges

Former Theranos executive Sunny Balwani was sentenced to almost 13 years in prison for fraud on December 7, 2022, Wednesday.

The Guardian reported that Sunny Balwani was a co-conspirator and former romantic partner of Elizabeth Holmes. Holmes was the founder and CEO of the now-defunct health technology company, Theranos.

According to prosecutors, Holmes and Balwani were responsible for misrepresenting Theranos' blood testing technology's capabilities. On October 15, 2015, the Wall Street Journal accused the company of using traditional blood testing machines, rather than the purportedly more advanced devices they advertised to customers and investors. As per CNBC, while Holmes and Balwani claimed Theranos machines could process over 1000 tests, the machines could only execute less than 20.

On November 18, 2022, Elizabeth Holmes was sentenced to over 11 years in prison. Prosecutors noted that Balwani has received a harsher sentence as he allegedly played a more active role in lying to investors.

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Sunny Balwani and Elizabeth Holmes' contradictory claims

Sunny Balwani's lawyers argued that their client should receive probation, rather than a prison sentence, as they claimed he did not benefit from Theranos to the same extent as Elizabeth Holmes.

His lawyers wrote in a memo that Balwani wasn't the same as Holmes as he had invested "millions of dollars of his own money." They added that he never wanted any fame or recognition and that:

"He has a long history of quietly giving to those less fortunate."

The defense also claimed that Sunny Balwani himself was an investor of the company, and could therefore be seen as a victim. As prosecutors denied this, they stated that Balwani's text records showed that he played an important part in the company's operations.

One of Balwani's texts read:

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

Prosecutor Jeffrey Shenk said that Balwani wasn't a victim but was a perpetrator of the fraud.

As per the BBC, Holmes' attorneys also implicated Balwani as the primary conspirator in the Theranos fraud scheme. They claimed that while Holmes and Balwani were in a relationship, Balwani had manipulated the former CEO into perpetrating fraud. They also argued that Balwani had subjected Holmes to psychological abuse.

Holmes' defense team also noted that Balwani was nearly two decades older than Holmes, and had tremendous sway over her decisions. When the pair met in Beijing in 2002, a year before Holmes founded Theranos, she was 18 and Balwani was 37.

Holmes claimed that at the time they met, she had been traumatized by a recent assault. She added that she began to rely on Balwani's advice as he supported her through the traumatic experience.

She said that she had been wondering how she would process the s*xual assault and what she wanted to do with her life. Elizabeth added:

"I decided that I was going to build a life by building [a company]."

While Balwani only officially joined the company in 2009, The Wall Street Journal wrote that he had played a role in advising Holmes since Theranos was founded. Their romantic relationship was not disclosed to employees.