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SAN JOSE, California — Taking a deep breath, Elizabeth Holmes He grimaced briefly as he spoke, his voice breaking.
Ramesh BalwaniHolmes, whose ex-boyfriend and business partner abused her emotionally and physically, testified in court on Monday. She said she checked, prescribed the food she ate, dictated every minute of her schedule, and kept her away from her family. And he forced her to have sex with him against her will, she said.
“He used to force me to have sex with him when I didn’t want to because he said he wanted me to know that he still loved me,” said Mrs. Holmes as she cried on the podium.
The most dramatic moment three month trialHolmes was accused of lying and leading to hundreds of millions of dollars for her failed blood test attempt, Theranos. Since September, prosecutors have told the jury that Ms. Holmes, who publicly introduced herself, great type of business and technologymisled investors, doctors, and patients about the effectiveness of Theranos’ blood testing technology.
In 2018, she was indicted along with Mr. Balwani, known as Sunny, her secret boyfriend of over a decade and former chief operating officer of Theranos. Last year, Ms. Holmes’ lawyers successfully argued for splitting fraud cases; Mr. Balwani will be tried next year. At the start of the hearing, US District Court of Northern California Judge Edward Davila instructed the jurors not to speculate as to why Mr. Balwani was not there. Both pleaded not guilty.
The trial was held as a parable of Silicon Valley arrogance, and the “fake it until you do” culture was taken to a dangerous extreme. Few entrepreneurs who bend the truth to raise money or secure business deals are accused of fraud. A guilty decision could prompt regulators to further crash the tech industry at a time when enormous wealth and power has been amassed. Miss Holmes will face 20 years in prison if found guilty.
With new charges about her affair with Mr Balwani, Ms. Holmes potentially upended the narrative of her alleged wrongdoing and changed the jury’s perception of what had happened. So far, her lawyers have portrayed Ms. Holmes as young, inexperienced, and unqualified to run a research lab. They just hinted at Mr. Balwani’s role in the scam.
“It was one of her mistakes to trust and trust Mr. Balwani as her primary advisor,” Lance Wade, Ms. Holmes’ lawyer, said in her opening statement in September.
Mr. Balwani denied all harassment charges. His lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Taking the stand on the fourth day of her trial, Ms. Holmes said her comments about Theranos’ relationship with the military had also been misunderstood. He said he didn’t intend to mislead anyone during tech demonstrations or inspections. And he said others were responsible for the day-to-day management of Theranos’ lab.
But that was overshadowed by the details of his affair, which he hid from the public as Theranos was on its way to a $9 billion valuation in its fast-moving trajectory. theranos crashed in 2018 resulted in the company invalidating its two-year test results after a regulatory crackdown.
For months, trial observers wondered whether Ms. Holmes would point out Mr. Balwani as part of her defence, as her lawyers implied in the files that she could. They also said they were waiting to call Mindy Mechanic, an expert witness who could testify about intimate partner abuse, to explain Ms Holmes’ accusations.
David M. Ring, a litigation attorney specializing in sexual assault and harassment cases, said blaming her relationship with Mr. Balwani was a risky strategy that could backfire.
“Elizabeth Holmes has so far presented herself as the epitome of self-confidence – this gorgeous, laid-back entrepreneur – and now she suddenly tells us, ‘I was the puppet and Sunny Balwani was the puppeteer.’ But if the jury finds her account credible, “it will go a long way toward acquittal.”
Ms. Holmes met Mr. Balwani when she was 18 on a trip to China through Stanford University. She is 20 years older than him. After Ms. Holmes left to start Theranos in 2003, she contacted Mr. Balwani, who consoled her after she said she had been raped while she was a student at Stanford.
“He said I was safe now that I’ve met him,” said Ms. Holmes. They started living together and Mr. Balwani joined Theranos in 2009.
As Theranos got older, Miss Holmes introduced herself as confident and poised. But behind the scenes, he said Mr Balwani criticized and controlled him, forcing him to follow a daily regimen of strict prayers, principles and green juice.
“He told me I didn’t know what I was doing in business, that my convictions were wrong, that he was surprised by my mediocrity, and that if I followed my instincts, I would fail,” he said, pausing to delete it. her nose as tears.
Mr. Balwani said he often told her to kill her old self and “become a new Elizabeth” to be successful in business.
The notes she took on Miss Holmes’ iPhone at the time backed up her account. One of Mr. Balwani’s posts after the alleged attack read, “Don’t really enjoy anything or enjoy who I am if I did it. It hurts so much. Very very much.””
It moved in 2016, he said, after a review from regulators revealed major problems in Theranos’ lab. Until then, he said he believed Theranos’ technology was working. The examination made him look at Mr. Balwani with a different eye. “He wasn’t who I thought he was,” he said.
The introduction of such a defense complicates the prosecutors’ case against Ms. Holmes. Throughout the trial, they tried to tie the fraud claim on Theranos to Ms Holmes by showing her emails and text messages where she was informed about the company’s problems.
Former employees confirmed that he is a hands-on leader, micromanaging things like marketing copy and taking part in meetings with investors and partners. In her previous testimony, Ms. Holmes admitted that she personally added the pharmaceutical companies’ logos to the reports she sent to investors without the drug manufacturers’ consent.
Prosecutors also played a video of Ms. Holmes discussing issues at Theranos in a TV interview. “I am the founder and CEO of this company,” he said. “Everything that happens in this company is my responsibility at the end of the day.”
But on Monday, Ms. Holmes portrayed herself as a young woman who took responsibility for her success, being manipulated by an older boyfriend.
“It affected everything about who I am, and I don’t quite understand it,” she said, stammering the word “I.”
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