Former Theranos exec Sunny Balwani convicted of 12 counts of fraud
The former Theranos executive Sunny Balwani has been convicted on all 12 fraud charges brought against him for his role at the now-defunct blood testing company.
The decision closes the final chapter of Theranos’s legal saga, nearly eight years after serious concerns were raised about the startup’s blood testing technology. The conviction of Balwani, who at one point oversaw the Theranos lab and put millions of his own fortune into the company, also marks a more severe judgment than that of his former lover and business partner Elizabeth Holmes, who was convicted of only four of 11 of the same charges in January.
Holmes was convicted of defrauding investors but was cleared on charges of defrauding patients, while Balwani was convicted on all charges – including those specific to patients.
Jurors in San Jose, California, announced the decision on Thursday following a 13-week trial that chronicled Balwani’s role in the medical tech firm that promised to revolutionize the world of medicine. The jury, made up of five men and seven women, deliberated for 32 hours before returning a verdict around noon.
The 57-year-old businessman had pleaded not guilty and now faces as many as 20 years in prison.Holmes is out on bail and will be sentenced on 26 September. Balwani will be sentenced on 15 November.
Holmes and Balwani, former business and romantic partners, had vowed to upend the medical testing industry with a blood test that could scan for more than 200 potential health problems with just a few drops of blood, a promise that was later discovered to have little basis in reality.
The company had risen to the top of Silicon Valley with Holmes at the helm, attracting big-name investors including the former secretaries of state George
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