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Who is Sunny Balwani, Elizabeth Holmes’ former right-hand man and ex-boyfriend on Theranos, and where has she been all along? his fraud case? On Tuesday, Ms. Holmes brought up Mr. Balwani several times as a witness.

Mr. Balwani’s lawyer, Jeffrey Coopersmith, was in the courtroom last week, taking notes in a large yellow notebook, reading legal documents on his phone, and refusing to comment on his client. But there is no sign of Mr. Balwani.

It didn’t seem like he was at home on a recent Sunday morning in Atherton, California, in the Silicon Valley community that the techno-rich call the home of the richest. Nobody answered the bell on the door of his 8,800 square meter house, which he bought in 2018. No cars to be seen and no lights turned on. Zillow values ​​the property at $19 million.

The mystery of Mr. Balwani’s whereabouts was consistent with what was known about him, which little was known about, including why he was called “Sunny”. His name was Ramesh, who was referred to as such in a handful of stories and news bulletins when he was on dot-com in 1999. It was also clear his divorce papers From a Japanese artist in 2002. Ten years later, when he was co-authoring patents at Theranos, it was just Sunny.

Mr. Balwani’s early career was in software. He was Microsoft’s Northern California sales manager and sold the company’s products to executives at other firms. On October 4, 1999, as the dot-com boom was roaring, he joined a start-up called CommerceBid.com as president.

CommerceBid has created platforms that allow businesses to pit suppliers against each other to cut costs. The idea seemed to have unlimited potential, and CommerceBid didn’t even make it to its first birthday before it was acquired in the space by another company called Commerce One for $225 million. A few weeks later, Commerce One, whose shares went public, was worth $20 billion.

Then came the collapse. A recession forced businesses to cut spending, and executives wondered if the technology wasn’t working well anyway. By 2004, Commerce One had no value. It was a routine dot-com rags to riches tale, hardly remembered amid the great flares of the era.

Failure in Silicon Valley was considered a virtue as it taught valuable lessons. But it can often be rewarding on its own. Mr. Balwani achieved this with a reported $40 million.

He later became chief of operations at Theranos and had a romantic relationship with Ms. Holmes, which was detailed in emails sent to the court. Mr. Balwani is also facing fraud charges and his case is scheduled for trial next year. Like Mrs. Holmes, she pleaded not guilty.