Ramesh Balwani

Early life and education Ramesh Balwani was born in Sindh, West Pakistan, into an upper middle-class Sindhi Hindu farming family. He attended Aitchison College, a prestigious boarding school in Lahore, until 1984.

Career In the 1990s, Balwani worked for Lotus Development and Microsoft. During Balwani's tenure at Microsoft he worked in sales. In 1999, the company was purchased by Commerce One, another business development software company with a high valuation. The buyout was done entirely with stock,

Theranos

Balwani joined Theranos in 2009. He ran the company's day-to-day operations as its president. He had no training in biological sciences or medical devices, Balwani at one point claimed "This invention [the Edison blood testing device] is going to be way up there, um, with – with the discovery of antibiotics." Edison machines frequently failed quality-control checks and produced widely varying results, a finding that was corroborated in a report released in March 2016 by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). In April 2016, Theranos told regulators it had voided all test results from Edison machines for 2014 and 2015, as well as some other tests it ran on conventional machines. CMS regulators proposed a two-year ban on Balwani from owning or operating a blood lab after the company had not fixed problems within its California lab in March 2016.

The other charges of fraud against Theranos include claiming the company's technology was being used by the U.S. Department of Defense in combat situations. Another false claim included claiming a $100 million revenue stream in 2014 that was actually $100,000. Balwani departed from his position at Theranos in May 2016.

Legal proceedings

SEC fraud charges In March 2018, Balwani and Holmes were charged by the SEC with securities fraud, "raising more than $700 million from investors through an elaborate, years-long fraud in which they exaggerated or made false statements about the company's technology, business, and financial performance".

United States v. Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani

On June 15, 2018, following an investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco that lasted more than two years, a federal grand jury indicted president Balwani and CEO Holmes on nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Prosecutors alleged that Holmes and Balwani engaged in two criminal schemes, one to defraud investors, the other to defraud patients.

On July 7, 2022, Balwani was found guilty on all counts and faced up to 20 years in prison and millions of dollars in restitution. He received a sentence of 12 years 11 months in prison, plus three years of probation on December 7, 2022. He was ordered to self-surrender by March 15, 2023, which a judge later amended to March 16. Balwani moved for appellate bail, but the judge denied his motion, citing a low likelihood of the appeal succeeding. Balwani later appealed this ruling, which triggered an automatic stay of his sentence. On April 7, 2023, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals refused Balwani's request, and a new self-surrender date was set for April 20. He surrendered on that date.

He was incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island, in San Pedro, California. In May 2023 during the restitution phase, Holmes and Balwani were ordered to pay $452 million to the victims of the fraud, with responsibility for the payment shared between them.

Balwani was in a romantic relationship with Elizabeth Holmes during his tenure at Theranos. Holmes met him in 2002 at age 18, while still in school. He was 19 years older than Holmes and married at the time. During her trial, Holmes testified that she had been raped while she was a student at Stanford and that she had sought solace from Balwani in the aftermath of the incident. In her court testimony, Holmes stated that Balwani wanted to "kill the person" she was and make her into a "new Elizabeth". In court filings, Balwani and his ex-wife Fujimoto have "categorically" denied abuse allegations, calling them "false and inflammatory".