How Did Sunny Balwani Make His Money

Elizabeth Holmes has been the star of multiple media projects. There'southward the HBO md The Inventor, the Wall Street Journal podcast Bad Blood, a volume past the same proper name, and ABC's podcast The Dropout, which Hulu recently adapted into a miniseries starring Amanda Seyfried.

The other main character from Holmes in The Dropout, streaming now, is Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, the founder's Theranos concern partner and ex-young man. Balwani played a major function in the rising and plummet of the blood-testing business. In fact, he met Holmes when she was merely 18 and joined Theranos in its early days. The pair hid their romantic human relationship and the fact that they lived together from investors.

Here'due south the lowdown on Balwani and how he fits into the never-ending Theranos scandal.

He Invested $13 Million Into Theranos

After Holmes launched Theranos at the age of 19, she needed a second circular of investment to help it continue to grow. Balwani stepped frontwards with a substantial loan that kept the visitor afloat.

"The visitor was depression on cash, and I knew of the mission and that what the visitor was trying to exercise was paramount and I offered to help the company and I concluded up giving a $thirteen million personal loan," Balwani, a former software executive, said in courtroom testimony obtained by podcast The Dropout. "It was interest-free. It was a good-faith loan."

Half dozen months later, in late 2009, Balwani was made the president and COO of the company, in spite of the fact he didn't have experience in science or lab testing. Elizabeth focused on big-picture vision while it was Balwani'southward chore to manage the employees and business organization partners. One former employee says, too on the podcast, that Balwani earned the nickname "the enforcer" due to his intimidating management manner.

"The atmosphere of the identify became caustic," erstwhile Theranos vice president Anthony Nugent testified, co-ordinate to Bloomberg.

Naveen Andrews as Sunny Balwani on the new Hulu adaptation of the Theranos story.

BETH DUBBER / HULU

Balwani and Holmes Had a Romantic Relationship They Didn't Reveal to Investors

Holmes and Balwani met in 2002 when she was about 18 years quondam and he was 37. They were both in China studying at Beijing University as part of a Stanford program.

In media coverage, Holmes was portrayed as unattached. In a 2014 New Yorker article, Theranos investor Henry Kissinger says he and his wife tried unsuccessfully to set Holmes up on dates. And Holmes's mother told that reporter: "Equally a parent, I practice hope that at some point she will accept fourth dimension for herself."

But Holmes and Balwani had a long-term romantic human relationship, Holmes later testified. She admits they kept the relationship from investors. And, despite sharing a residence iv miles from Theranos headquarters, many of the employees were unaware they were involved.

Balwani and Holmes's relationship concluded at almost the same time he left Theranos. "Once nosotros started working together it was a very intense human relationship and that romantic piece that was there at the very start died," Holmes said during her degradation. "I don't think it happened in one moment, but it was very clear we were colleagues."

Court Hearing Held For Theranos Founder And Former President On Fraud Charges

Balwani leaves the courthouse in January.

Justin Sullivan Getty Images

He Maintains His Innocence

In June 2018, a federal grand jury indicted Holmes and Sunny on multiple counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The victims of their crimes were listed equally investors and patients. Both pleaded non guilty and were released on bail. In September of 2020, at Balwani'due south request, the presiding judge, U.S. District Gauge Edward Davila, announced that Balwani and Homes would be tried separately. Elizabeth Holmes was recently found guilty on four out of seven counts of criminal fraud confronting investors. She faces up to twenty years in prison house for her crimes. She is currently out on bail and awaiting her sentencing, scheduled for September.

Meanwhile, Balwani's trial is almost to get started. Jury pick was scheduled to begin Wednesday, in front of the same guess and in the same courthouse where Holmes received her guilty verdict. He faces the same 12 counts every bit his ex. Throughout the entire Theranos ordeal, Balwani has maintained his innocence.

"In over 28 years of practicing law, as both a federal prosecutor and a defense attorney, I take never seen a case similar this one, where the authorities brings a criminal prosecution against a defendant who obtained no financial benefit and lost millions of dollars of his own money," chaser Jeffrey Coopersmith told Vanity Fair in 201. "Mr. Balwani committed no crimes. He did not defraud Theranos investors, who were amidst the most sophisticated in the world. He did non defraud consumers but instead worked tirelessly to empower them with access to their own wellness information. Mr. Balwani is innocent, and looks forward to clearing his name at trial."

In Feb, after Holmes's trial wrapped, Balwani's counsel asked the guess to exclude from his trial any testify or information obtained during Holmes'due south proceedings. The request came after Holmes took the stand in her ain trial and defendant Balwani of corruption and blamed him for Theranos'south collapse. Merely text messages revealed during the prosecution contradicted her narrative. Both Holmes and Balwani seemed to exist complicit in misleading investors and the public about Theranos'due south blood-testing capabilities.

In an interview with The New York Times, Reed Kathrein, a San Francisco lawyer who sued Theranos in 2016 on behalf of investors, said "She was the Wizard of Oz, dazzling the investors and media, merely [Balwani] was the one behind the curtain working the machinery." Reed added: "He knew everything."

Source: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a26838289/who-is-ramesh-sunny-balwani/

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