Happy Nice Mall

Elizabeth Holmes His lawsuit to defraud investors in his blood test venture was a star entrepreneur that has become one of Silicon Valley’s biggest showdowns since the iPhone launch. his conviction In January, there was a rare moment in technology’s boastful history: A CEO was held criminally responsible for lying.

for most his caseMiss Holmes called blame her assistant and ex-boyfriend, Ramesh Balwani, for those who went wrong at his company, Theranos. Mr. Balwani, now known as Sunny, will have the opportunity to answer in his own fraud case. Jury selection was due to begin Wednesday in the same federal courtroom in San Jose, California, where Ms. Holmes’ fate was determined.

The first trial offered a close examination of the unusual relationship between a young woman and an older man, and the second trial is promising. Ms. Holmes and Mr. Balwani had a secret romance that was also a professional alliance, an exciting promise to improve healthcare for millions, putting patients at risk instead. The blood tests didn’t work, even as they assumed new and better technology would save them from their reckless claims.

Mr. Balwani, 57, is a former software executive who made a fortune during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s. He became friends with Ms. Holmes while studying in China the summer before his freshman year at Stanford University. Their romantic relationship eventually led him to join Theranos in 2009 as president and business manager.

He was the opposite of a star, hardly mentioned in the book. glowing cover stories About Miss Holmes and Theranos. However, by all evidence, Mr. Balwani and Ms. Holmes, now 38 years old, were a tight-knit team that led the start-up. Few people knew they were in a relationship.

“It was the Wizard of Oz that dazzled investors and the media, but it was he who operated the machine behind the curtain,” said Reed Kathrein, a San Francisco attorney who successfully sued Ms. Holmes and Theranos on behalf of investors in 2016. He said he was confident the prosecution would show that “he knew he was lying and never stopped it”.

“He knew everything,” said Mr. Kathrein.

Mr. Balwani’s trial will cross familiar ground. He faces the same 12 charges that Ms. Holmes initially faced. (One number was dropped after a procedural error by the government.) He pleaded not guilty.

Ms. Holmes was found guilty of defrauding four investors and acquitted of defrauding four patients; The jury is stuck in the count of the three remaining investors. He will be sentenced in the fall.

The consensus among the legal experts watching the case is that the government’s successful prosecution of Ms. Holmes will speed up Mr Balwani’s case.

“The government has had the opportunity to do a full study, so they will have learned what works and what doesn’t,” said James Melendres, the former federal prosecutor who represents corporate clients.

Prosecutors declined to comment, Mr Balwani and his lawyers. Ms Holmes declined to comment through her lawyers.

While Ms. Holmes’ past has been extensively documented, relatively little is known about Mr. Balwani, including why he was called Sunny.

As a seasoned software executive, he had the chance to acquire his startup by a larger firm just before the 2000 stock market crash, making it nearly $40 million. He divorced, went back to school to do an MBA and study computer science, and bought luxury cars. (His license plate was DASKPTL, referencing Karl Marx.) His lawyers said that when he joined Theranos, he invested millions of dollars there.

At Theranos, he had a reputation as a tough, demanding boss who became increasingly paranoid about employees stealing trade secrets that would revolutionize blood testing. In one incident described by journalist John Carreyrou, Mr. Balwani called the police to track down an employee who had quit, explaining that the former worker had “stolen the property he had in mind”.

Mr Balwani’s lawyers are expected to highlight the lack of experience in biomedical devices at the heart of Theranos’ claims. Legal experts said he was unlikely to testify. She will probably be less understanding on the witness stand than the new mother, Mrs. Holmes. played his youth He came to the court holding hands with his mother and wife.

“He’s not in favor of optics,” said Ann Kim, a former federal prosecutor who represents companies conducting government investigations.

When Miss Holmes got her defense, she tried to subvert the narrative about her spectacular collapse. bomb abuse allegations Against Mr. Balwani. He denied the charges, and the text messages released during the trial depicted a more or less equal relationship, especially as the company was under pressure from whistleblowers and the media.

“Anything we have to answer to liars is ridiculous,” said Miss Holmes in one message. Mr. Balwani vowed to retaliate against his accusers: “When this is over, we will take legal action.”

At the heart of the government’s pursuit of both defendants is the allegation that they moved from the hype line as common as breathing in Silicon Valley to deception.

Miss Holmes could recreate an alternate reality with effortless ease. his role modelSteve Jobs, co-founder of Apple. Witnesses at his trial said he made people believe he would change the world. Investors poured nearly $1 billion into Theranos.

Mr. Balwani, like most dull people, did not have such abilities. She only has one video online, but she reveals her style.

In March 2014, Theranos launched its finger blood test system at Walgreens, Arizona. Mr. Balwani made a presentation On “Innovation in Healthcare” to the Health and Human Services Committee of the Arizona Senate. Actually, she wasn’t supposed to do that – Miss Holmes had to cancel – and she didn’t seem like she was having fun.

Mr Balwani told legislators that the company is working on “something we believe is magical”. He mentioned a particular patient who had “no legs”. When this man had to give blood, the needle went into his neck. But at the Theranos clinic, “he had a small limb attached to his body” and “we managed to finger puncture it”.

How a limbless person suddenly gained a limb was not explained. It was as if Mr. Balwani had dared to point out to the senators that Theranos was literally a magical idea.

They didn’t. Instead, they greeted him.

“I love bringing the free market into our healthcare system,” said Republican State Senator Kelli Ward, who states that she is a family doctor.

(Senator Ward is now chairman of the State Republican Party and was active in efforts to tip the local election results in favor of President Trump. “It’s even clearer now that we need to let the free market work,” he said in an email.)

Neither the prosecution nor the defense filled the final list of witnesses for Mr. Balwani’s trial. In December, attorneys submitted their proposed questionnaires for potential jurors, including a preliminary witness list.

A handful of potential witnesses to the Holmes case were shot for obvious reasons, including Mrs. Holmes’ mother Noel and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who was a member of Theranos’ board of directors. Mindy Mechanic, the Holmes team’s expert witness on domestic abuse, who ultimately failed to take the stand, was also fired. Mr. Balwani’s legal team has selected experts in forensic accounting, intellectual property and SQL databases.

A potential witness for the government would make headlines. However, it is unlikely that Ms. Holmes will testify, even if it could have reduced her sentence.

“It looks like he’s going to fight this to the end of the world,” said Jen Kennedy Park, a white-collar defense attorney.