Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, former COO and president of the failed blood-testing startup Theranos, was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison Wednesday.
Balwani was found guilty on all 12 charges he faced this summer, including 10 counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Elizabeth Holmes, the former CEO of Theranos who was also previously romantically involved with Balwani, was recently sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for defrauding investors. She was found guilty on four of the 11 charges she faced early this year. Both Holmes and Balwani could have received up to 20 years in prison.
According to the Associated Press, Balwani’s lawyer indicated he would likely file an appeal. Holmes, who is currently pregnant with her second child, has already begun the process to appeal her sentence.
Theranos was founded in 2003, and Balwani joined the company in 2009. It promised its technology could perform a variety of blood tests with a small sample, raising huge amounts of investor dollars and inking deals with industry giants like Walgreens.
In 2015, The Wall Street Journal’s John Carreyrou began a series of investigative articles on the accuracy of Theranos’ Edison technology, revealing most of its tests were performed on traditional machines.
Three years later, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged both Holmes and Balwani with “massive fraud.” The company began its shutdown about six months later.
Balwani’s sentencing marks a final chapter in the scandal-ridden Theranos saga, which raised concerns about using Silicon Valley’s “move fast and break things” ethos in healthcare.
“I think [for] anyone who goes into the healthcare industry, you take a certain oath and you set certain standards for yourself,” Theranos whistleblower Erika Cheung said during an event in 2019. “Largely that is to protect patients. … In my case I was testing patients with technology I didn’t trust myself. I wouldn’t test it on my family members, [and] then being expected to give those to the public was a line I wasn’t willing to cross.”
