(San Francisco) Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, former chief operating officer of Theranos, who promised to revolutionize blood tests, was sentenced to almost 13 years in prison on Wednesday, even more than his former partner Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the young fallen Californian shoot.
Tried in a separate trial, Mr. Balwani was found guilty in July on all cases of fraud against the company’s investors and patients.
The former number two of the young company was sentenced to 155 months in prison on Wednesday, according to a decision rendered by a US federal judge.
Founded in 2003, Theranos promised to invent a machine capable of performing hundreds of blood diagnoses 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 senior figures, including the former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of Defense James Mattis or the magnate of the Rupert Murdoch media.
PHOTO JEFF CHIU, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Elizabeth Holmes
But she had collapsed when the wall street journal revealed in 2015 that the technology never worked as expected.
The conviction of Mr. Balwani comes less than a month after that of the founder of Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, who was sentenced in mid-November to 11 years in prison. A judgment she appealed.
Mr. Balwani’s ex-girlfriend had established herself as a star in Silicon Valley, thanks to a very elaborate story and appearance that had won her the confidence of investors.
At the helm of Theranos, the two lovers, who were initially sued together but ultimately tried separately, had raised hundreds of millions of dollars in funds.
At its peak, their company was valued at nearly $10 billion.