(San José) Elizabeth Holmes, the fallen biotech star accused of fraud, on Monday described an abusive relationship with her ex-COO and lover, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, who allegedly forced her to have sex against her will and would have been responsible for the technical problems of his company.
“He would get very angry with me and then he would come to our room sometimes and force me to have sex with him,” she recounted, tears in her eyes, before the jurors in San Jose court. (California), where his trial opened in early September.
Mme Holmes was 19 when she launched her start-up, Theranos, in 2003. It promised to produce diagnostic tools faster and cheaper than traditional labs, but the machines never worked, while investors lost millions of dollars.
Far from the charismatic leader who had convinced various personalities in the business world of the potential of her technology, Elizabeth Holmes on Monday told her story through the prism of the grip she says she suffered from her former partner, aged 19. years older than her.
She assured the court that he kept her under close control, dictated her diet and schedule, and kept her away from her family, a “distraction,” he said.
Texting in support, she showed that he wanted to “kill old Elizabeth” and “shape” her into a new person, more masculine and less “little girl”. “He was yelling at me, to say he was disappointed with my mediocrity,” she said, her voice shaking.
The relationship lasted until 2016, when she decided to leave Ramesh Balwani and recruit a new management team.
The previous year, in 2015, surveys of Wall Street Journal had sparked the scandal, revealing that the methods supposed to allow up to 200 analyzes from a few drops of blood were not working.
Elizabeth Holmes’ lawyers had so far sought to paint for the jury the image of a young innovator determined to achieve her vision of a revolution in blood diagnostics. They tried to prove his good faith and refute the accusations of hiding the problems from investors.
The prosecution, which will question her from Tuesday, wants to show that she supervised all the activities of her company very closely and trapped her business and financial partners knowingly.
If she is doomed, Mme Holmes faces a prison sentence of up to decades in prison.