What did Sunny Balwani do? Former Theranos CEO found guilty of 12 fraud charges

Ramesh Sunny Balwani, the former Theranos COO and president, has been found guilty of all 12 charges of fraud against him.

A jury bench in the Federal Court of California found Balwani guilty of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to media reports.

Sunny Balwani is the ex-boyfriend of Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos. He is also the former COO and one-time president of the company. Balwani and Holmes founded the now-infamous company Theranos in 2003.

Authorities said that Holmes and Balwani made false claims about their company that Theranos' technology could run hundreds of medical tests using only a few drops of a patient's blood. This attracted financial investment from retail giants such as Walgreens and Safeway.

But in March 2018, their fraud was revealed. Balwani and Holmes are charged with enormous fraud and accused of raising more than $700 million from investors through an elaborate, years-long scheme. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged them with exaggerated and false statements about the company's technology, business, and financial performance.

Although Balwani has not yet been sentenced, as he has been charged on 12 different counts, he could be expecting a similar or even lengthier sentence than that of Holmes.

Until the trial, Sunny Balwani's attorney Jeffrey Coopersmith kept reinstating that he committed no fraud. He said:

“Mr. Balwani committed no crimes. He did not defraud Theranos investors, who were among the most sophisticated in the world. He did not defraud consumers but instead worked tirelessly to empower them with access to their own health information. Mr. Balwani is innocent, and looks forward to clearing his name at trial.”

He blamed Holmes for trapping Balwani:

“There’s no reason why he wouldn’t have seen the exact same thing: the charisma, the drive, the vision, the goal to change diagnostic testing. And he bought into that vision,”

Andrey Spektor, a criminal defense lawyer, not involved in the case, said:

"Balwani ran the lab for a time and was just as involved as Holmes in management. To some extent, the government had a stronger case against him.”

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Who is Sunny Balwani?

Balwani was number two in the hierarchy at Theranos. Holmes founded the company. He ran the day-to-day business.

He met Holmes in Beijing in 2003, both of them students at Stanford. He was 37 and Holmes, 19. They were also allegedly involved in a romantic relationship.

Prosecutor Robert Leach said earlier in the trial:

"Ms Holmes and Mr Balwani were partners in virtually everything."

At Theranos, Holmes was the face of the company, but Balwani ran everything. He made all the decisions and did all the meetings with investors. He was one of the earliest investors, investing $15 million in the company's founding years.