Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani received a heavier sentence than his ex-partner and founder of the company, Elizabeth Holmes. Theranos had falsely promised to revolutionize blood tests.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
He had appeared during his trial as the bad genius of Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the start-up Theranos, who was his partner. Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, a former director of business operations, promised to revolutionize Bloody tests, was sentenced to almost 13 years in prison on Wednesday, December 7. An even heavier sentence than that received by her former partner Elizabeth Holmes, condemned she mid-November to eleven years in prison. A judgment which she appealed.
Judged during a separate trial, Mr. Balwani had been found guilty in July on all fraud files towards investors and patients in the company. Former number two of the start-up was sentenced on Wednesday to 155 months in prison, according to a decision rendered by an American federal judge.
Founded in 2003, Theranos promised to invent a machine capable of making hundreds of blood diagnostics from a single drop of blood taken from the finger.
Thanks to this revolutionary project, the start-up had aroused the enthusiasm of many businessmen and high characters, including ex-secretary of state Henry Kissinger, the former Minister of Defense James Mattis or the Rupert Murdoch media tycoon.
a case revealed by the “Wall Street Journal”
But she collapsed when the Wall Street Journal had revealed in 2015 that technology had never worked as expected.
The ex-partner of Mr. Balwani had imposed himself as a star of Silicon Valley, thanks to a very worked story and appearance which had allowed him to gain the confidence of investors.
At the command of Theranos, the two lovers, who were initially continued together but were finally tried separately, had raised hundreds of millions of dollars in funds. At its peak, their start-up was valued nearly $ 10 billion.