GUILTY CA - Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, 56, (Theranos), wire fraud charges

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Dorothy Atkins@doratki
4h

It’s another morning in San Jose, and not necessarily a good one, given that we have a long day of opening statements ahead in Sunny Balwani’s criminal fraud trial and there’s a line of press waiting to get into the courtroom. There doesn’t appear to be an overflow courtroom.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
4h

The courtroom doors are open and the jury is in the courtroom. Judge Davila says someone in court yesterday was in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 so trial is off today.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
4h

Judge Davila says the person tested negative for COVID, but out of an abundance of caution, he's going to call off trial for the day and push openings to Friday. He says jurors can take COVID tests that the court has if they want to.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
4h

The irony of this is that the judge is telling everybody about the potential COVID exposure to a packed courtroom full of press and attorneys.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
4h

Trial recessed for the day, and we'll all be back here Friday, hopefully without any COVID symptoms.
 
Niner said:
You must have a subscription to this... I can't read it... :(
Click to expand...
You're not the only one, @Niner
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:(

Nevermind, there'll be other articles we can access that more or less give the same info. :D
 
Docket update - article says 8:30am - but court has 10am.

Tuesday, Mar 29 2022
09:00AM
5:18-cr-00258-EJD-2 - USA v. Ramesh Sunny Balwani
Jury Trial

10:00AM
5:18-cr-00258-EJD-2 - USA v. Ramesh Sunny Balwani
Motion for Dismissal or Other Remedies
 
Docket update!!

Tuesday, Mar 22 2022
08:30AM
5:18-cr-00258-EJD - USA v. Ramesh Balwani
Motion to Exclude

09:00AM
5:18-cr-00258-EJD-2 - USA v. Ramesh Sunny Balwani
Jury Trial

link: CALENDAR
 
Tuesday, March 22nd:
*Motion to Exclude (@8:30am PT) & *Trial set to begin (Day 1) (@ 9am PT) - CA – *Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani (53/now 56) (CFO & President of Theranos) indicted & charged (6/14/18) & arraigned (6/15/18) with 9 counts of wire fraud & 2 counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Another count of wire fraud was added in 2020, bringing the total number of felony charges to 12. Plead not guilty. No bond. Faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison & a fine of $2.75 million, plus restitution, & $250K for each individual count of wire fraud & conspiracy. Plead Not guilty.
Defrauding investors out of $700 million in funding for their blood-testing startup Theranos.
Trial set to begin on 3/22/22. Jury: 12 jurors (6 women & 6 men) & 6 alternates (2 women & 4 men). Trial Court will be in session on Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Fridays (from 9-3), but the jury may be asked to come in on some Mondays & Thursdays as well. Trial dates so far: 3/22 & motion to exclude @ 8:30am, 3/23, 3/25, 3/29 with motion to dismiss hearing @ 10am, 3/30, 4/1, 4/5, 4/6, 4/12, 4/13, 4/15, 4/19, 4/20, 4/22, 4/26 & 4/27 so far.
Indictment & court info from 4/11/20 thru 3/8/22 & Jury selection (Day 1-4) 3/9/22 to 3/15/22 reference post #40 here:
CA - Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, 56, (Theranos), wire fraud charges
3/16/22 Wednesday: Judge Davila says the person tested negative for COVID, but out of an abundance of caution, he's going to call off trial for the day and push openings to Friday. He says jurors can take COVID tests that the court has if they want to. Trial recessed for the day, and we'll all be back here Friday, 3/18/22. Trial date pushed back due to COVID. Trial will now start on Tuesday 3/22/22 with a Motion to Exclude hearing at 8:30am.
3/17/21 Update: The government & counsel for Balwani have met & conferred & stipulate to the following changes to the motions hearing & deadlines for an opposition & reply relating to Motion for dismissal or other remedies. Motion to dismiss hearing on 3/29/22 @ 10am. The government's opposition shall be due no later than 3/22/22 & Balwani's reply shall be due no later than 3/25/22.
*Elizabeth A. Holmes (34/now 37) (CEO of Theranos) – Trial began on 9/8/21 & ended 1/3/22 with a verdict of guilty on 4 counts of 11. Next sentencing hearing on 9/26/22.
 
Dorothy Atkins@doratki
12h

I'm in San Jose for a status conference that was scheduled at the last min this morning in Sunny Balwani's case. Defense counsel is here, seemingly in a spirited mood, although Balwani is not. Prosecutors just arrived too. (Hopefully no one has COVID.) We're waiting on the judge.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
12h

Judge Davila is on the bench. He says he set the hearing at the last minute because he wants to discuss scheduling. A juror reported this morning that he has a fever and sore throat.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
12h

Prosecutor Jeff Schenk asks if the court received any 'testing information' about whether the juror tested positive for COVID-19. The judge says no.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
12h

Schenk says they should just excuse the juror and have openings tomorrow, even though there's a week break in trial between Wed and next week. Defense counsel agrees.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
12h

Judge Davila agrees to excuse the sick juror - juror no. 1 - and moves juror alternate no. 1 into his seat. Oddly, no one has mentioned anything about whether any other jurors have gotten sick since last week.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
12h

Openings are still set for tomorrow at 9 am, which will obv pack the courtroom with press and attorneys. I REALLY HOPE no one gets covid.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
11h

This would be a GREAT TIME for the court to broadcast proceedings telephonically, but what do I know?
 
UndiscoveredTruth from tweet said:
snipped....

Judge Davila agrees to excuse the sick juror - juror no. 1 - and moves juror alternate no. 1 into his seat. Oddly, no one has mentioned anything about whether any other jurors have gotten sick since last week.
Click to expand...

If anyone sees "what" gender the alternate is - please let me know. I have for the time being marked it as a "male".
TIA! :)
 
Dorothy Atkins@doratki
4h

Hello from San Jose! I'm in Judge Ed Davila's courtroom alongside a bunch of other press folks (hopefully) for opening statements in Sunny Balwani's trial. Some people are walking around the courthouse maskless. I am not so bold.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
3h

The judge is on the bench to discuss an evidentiary issue b4 bringing in the jury. Balwani's counsel wants Erika Cheung's CMS complaint against Theranos excluded from trial as hearsay. He says the gov't didn't introduce it in Holmes' trial & CMS already was inspecting Theranos.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
3h

Prosecutor John Bostic argues the doc is admissible, relevant and defense counsel hasn't objected to Erika Cheung testifying "on the problems she saw and the fact she reported the problems to CMS." The judge says he'll admit the header but not the full document.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
3h

Judge Davila is on the bench. He's about to read jury instructions, which will take a while. The courtroom is about 3/4 full with media folks and attorneys - a stark contrast to openings of Elizabeth Holmes' trial, which packed 2 courtrooms and dozens of people were turned away.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
3h

The judge notes that there are 12 counts against Sunny Balwani - 2 conspiracy counts (1 for investors and 1 for patients) and 10 wire fraud counts. Holmes faced the same charges, but mid-trial the gov't dropped 1 fraud count. She was convicted on 1 conspiracy and 3 fraud counts.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
2h

Judge Davila tells the jury they can't research the case or look it up on any social media platform, including Tik-Tok. I'm not on Tik-Tok, but are there really Balwani-related Tik-Toks out there? Is that a risk?

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
2h

The judge wrapped instructions. Prosecutor Robert Leach is up for the government's openings. I expect it'll last an hour. There's a delay though, b/c the judge says, "It seems like we have a Silicon Valley glitch in our system." (Oh, boy. Here we go again.) Trial's recessed.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
2h

They fixed the tech issue for now. Prosecutor Leach begins opening statements saying what he said in Holmes' trial openings: "This case is about fraud about lying and cheating to obtain property," and Balwani lied to investors and patients about Theranos' tech capabilities.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
2h

Leach says Balwani joined Theranos as president in 2009 even though he didn't have a medical degree or specialize in blood tests. Leach says he joined b/c of his romantic relationship with Elizabeth Holmes, which began around the time she dropped out of college in 2003.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
2h

Leach says Balwani and Holmes made "grandiose and spectacular claims" about Theranos' tech capabilities and convinced Safeway and Walgreens to invest millions, citing its alleged pharma deals, even as pharma cos were telling the execs they didn't want to do business w/ Theranos.
 
Dorothy Atkins@doratki
2h

Leach says in Sept 2013 Balwani and Holmes convinced the WSJ to run an article favoring Theranos that misled investors, and timed the release of a press statement that falsely claimed that Theranos's tech could do could do any blood test with a few drops of blood in hours.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
2h

Leach says sometimes Holmes took the lead in duping investors and sometimes Balwani took over. "The evidence will show that Balwani and Ms. Holmes were partners in virtually everything," he says.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
2h

Leach is flipping through various Theranos PowerPoint slides purportedly made for investors. The slides were the focus of a lot of trial testimony in Holmes' trial and they make a number of claims about Theranos' technology and its ability to do any blood test.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
2h

Leach says Theranos' blood analyzers could only ever do 12 tests at most, and they did them badly, but by Sept 2015, when the startup came under scrutiny, it was using modified devices made by other cos to run tests.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
2h

Leach says Balwani and Holmes told investors that Theranos had deals with the U.S. military and pharma cos, but its military project "never got off the ground" and the devices were never used in the battlefield.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
2h

Leach says Balwani told investors as late as Oct 2014 that Theranos would have more than $140 million in revenue by the end of the year, even though it had only $150k that year. Balwani said it would have +$2 billion in revenue in 2015, but it only had less than $2 million.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
2h

Leach says Balwani was the primary contact for Theranos' Walgreens deal and in 2014, he allegedly lied to investors about the pace of the Walgreens rollout, even as Walgreens execs were telling him Theranos needed to cut its venous blood draws from 40% of patient draws to <10%

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
2h

Leach says Balwani and Holmes' scheme brought them fame and made them "billionaires." He says at its height, Balwani owned 28M shares worth $500 million, and Holmes owned 250 million shares worth $4.5 billion. (Holmes never cashed out her shares, but it's unclear if Balwani did.)

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
1h

Leach tells the jury they'll hear from whistleblower Erika Cheung & its ex-lab director Adam Rosendorff about the testing problems, as well as patients who received bogus pregnancy tests from Theranos. (Sounds like the gov't will call the exact same witnesses from Holmes' trial)

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
1h

Leach says the jury will also see how regularly and frequently Balwani and Holmes communicated (ie. via their cringeworthy text messages) and how they urged each other to pray during a federal lab inspection. He says investors didn't know they were dating.
 
Dorothy Atkins@doratki
1h

Leach says Balwani was head of Theranos' operations, but Balwani and Holmes together made significant decisions about the co. "You will see how they were partners in everything, including their crime."

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
1h

Leach is listing off various witnesses prosecutors plan to call during Balwani's trial. Every one of them, including hedge fund manager Brian Grossman, has already testified in Holmes' trial.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
1h

The government wrapped openings, which largely mirrored opening statements Elizabeth Holmes' trial. We're taking a quick break before defense's openings. Will be curious to see if they try to pin the blame on Holmes.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
1h

Balwani is wearing a suit and checkered tie. He's currently talking to his attorneys, but during the government's opening statement he was taking notes throughout. I don't recall seeing Holmes taking notes during her trial. She just sat there mostly staring ahead.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
1h

Balwani's counsel Stephen Cazares from
@Orrick
is up for defense's openings. Cazares starts by saying Sunny Balwani "did not start Theranos" and "did not control theranos," and he left in May 2016 when there was $100 millions of investor $ in Theranos' accounts and "walked away."

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
1h

Balwani's counsel says Balwani invested $5 million into Theranos and never took a dollar from the co. He says the gov't also charged Balwani without analyzing 3+ years of Theranos patient testing records and data to prove its claims Theranos' tests didn't work.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
1h

Balwani's counsel says Balwani thought the blood testing idea was a "great idea" and he worked "24 hrs a day 7 days a week" to make it happen, but "Sunny never made a dime from Theranos, and you’ll see no evidence of that in this case."

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
1h

Balwani's counsel says Balwani learned "the science" about Theranos' business from Elizabeth Holmes and scientists, and it was her company that she started.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
1h

Balwani's counsel says Balwani's three brothers are in court watching and he has two sisters. He was born in South Asia and his parents were farmers that owned factories and farms. "He grew up in a family of business people," but his parent didn’t go to college.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
1h

Balwani's atty says Balwani got his undergrad degree in information systems on a student visa at Texas tech, and then moved to Silicon Valley working as an engineer in startups. He eventually worked at Microsoft in 1994, left and started a co that he sold and became a US citizen.
 
Dorothy Atkins@doratki
1h

Balwani's counsel says Balwani met Holmes when he was getting his MBA at UC Berkeley and doing a language program in China. After he graduated w/ his MBA, he started working on an engineering degree at Stanford and he started dating Holmes in 2004.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
1h

Balwani's counsel says Holmes built Theranos, not Balwani. "Elizabeth, not Sunny, build a small but sophisticated diagnostics company before Sunny joined in 2009." "This was hers. This is what she built."

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
1h

Balwani's counsel repeatedly says Elizabeth Holmes built a team of high-profile Silicon Valley investors and cut Theranos pharma deals "before Sunny had anything to do with Theranos."

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
1h

Balwani's counsel says Balwani joined Theranos in 2009, not because Holmes was his girlfriend, but b/c he believed in the company's tech. Balwani loaned Theranos up to $18 million in 2009 when it was struggling to pay bills, and Theranos eventually paid him back.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
1h

Balwani's counsel says Balwani never sold a single share of Theranos stock, and he only took a $99,000 annual salary from the co.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
1h

Balwani's counsel says everything Balwani knew about Theranos' technolgoy he learned from Theranos' scientists and Theranos scientist Ian Gibbons told him in Feb 2010 the tech could do "all four categories of blood testing."

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
52m

Balwani's counsel points out that Theranos scientists developed 76 patents and more than 200 small sample blood tests and validated 70+ tests. He says Balwani and Holmes didn't validate those tests, Theranos scientists and lab director validated them.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
49m

Balwani's counsel says there's "no dispute" that Theranos used modified commercial blood test devices to run tests, but Balwani never hid that fact from investors and Theranos disclosed on its website that is used venous draws for some tests.

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
41s

Balwani’s counsel ended. The jury was excused for a break. Prosecutor Robert Leach says the door was “widely open” during defense’s openings about the missing Theranos database and the government objects.

EDITED TO ADD:

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
7m

Balwani’s atty agrees they opened the door to the topic but it deserves more briefing (even tho they briefed this extensively). The judge says he has to determine the size of the door but “sometimes even a small door can open to a wide pasture” so he’ll review the transcript.
 
Last edited:
So he's really going with the "I had nothing to do with it and learned all the science from her" defense??? How gullible does he think that jurors are?
 
Dorothy Atkins@doratki
26m

We're back from the break. The government calls former Theranos lab associate Erika Cheung Erika Cheung as the first witness. (She was the second witness in Holmes' trial.)

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
24m

Cheung says she took a job at Theranos as her first job out of college in Oct 2013 but she quit the following April, b/c "I was uncomfortable with the fact that we were testing on patients that I thought weren’t producing reliable results for patients."

Dorothy Atkins@doratki
10m

The direct exams are largely the same in this trial as they were in Holmes and since I live tweeted that entire thing, I'm not going to do it for this one. You can dig through my threads if you're curious, or order a trial transcript - but it'll cost you!

Transcript Page Rates | United States District Court, Northern District of California
 
Wednesday, March 23rd:
*Trial continues (Day 2) (@ 9am PT) - CA – *Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani (53/now 56) (CFO & President of Theranos) indicted & charged (6/14/18) & arraigned (6/15/18) with 9 counts of wire fraud & 2 counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Another count of wire fraud was added in 2020, bringing the total number of felony charges to 12. Plead not guilty. No bond. Faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison & a fine of $2.75 million, plus restitution, & $250K for each individual count of wire fraud & conspiracy. Plead Not guilty.
Defrauding investors out of $700 million in funding for their blood-testing startup Theranos.
Trial began on 3/22/22. Jury: 12 jurors (6 women & 6 men) & 6 alternates (2 women & 4 men). 3/21/22: Jury #1 sick, alternate moves to jury. 12 jurors (6 women & 6 men) & 5 alternates (2 women & 3 men). Trial Court will be in session on Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Fridays (from 9-3), but the jury may be asked to come in on some Mondays & Thursdays as well. Trial dates so far: 3/23, 3/25, 3/29 with motion to dismiss hearing @ 10am, 3/30, 4/1, 4/5, 4/6, 4/12, 4/13, 4/15, 4/19, 4/20, 4/22, 4/26 & 4/27 so far.
Indictment & court info from 4/11/20 thru 3/8/22 & Jury selection (Day 1-4) 3/9/22 to 3/15/22 & 3/16 to 3/17/22 reference post #51 here:
CA - Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, 56, (Theranos), wire fraud charges
3/21/22 Update: Judge Davila is on the bench. He says he set the hearing at the last minute because he wants to discuss scheduling. A juror reported this morning that he has a fever & sore throat.
for more info see post #52 here:
CA - Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, 56, (Theranos), wire fraud charges
Judge Davila agrees to excuse the sick juror - juror no. 1 - and moves juror alternate no. 1 into his seat. Openings are still set for tomorrow, 3/22/22 at 9am.
3/22/21 Tuesday, Trial Day 1: The judge is on the bench to discuss an evidentiary issue before bringing in the jury. Balwani's counsel wants Erika Cheung's CMS complaint against Theranos excluded from trial as hearsay. He says the gov't didn't introduce it in Holmes' trial & CMS already was inspecting Theranos. The judge says he'll admit the header but not the full document. The Judge read jury instructions.
Prosecutor Robert Leach gave opening statements for the government.
for more info see post #55 here:
CA - Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, 56, (Theranos), wire fraud charges
Prosecutor Robert Leach continues opening statements for the government. And Stephen Cazares opening statements for defense.
for more info see posts #56 & 57 here:
CA - Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, 56, (Theranos), wire fraud charges
Stephen Cazares continues opening statements for defense.
for more info see posts #58 & 59 here:
CA - Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, 56, (Theranos), wire fraud charges
Government witnesses: former Theranos lab associate Erika Cheung Erika Cheung.
for more info see post #60 here:
CA - Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, 56, (Theranos), wire fraud charges
Trial continues on 3/23/22.
*Elizabeth A. Holmes (34/now 37) (CEO of Theranos) – Trial began on 9/8/21 & ended 1/3/22 with a verdict of guilty on 4 counts of 11. Next sentencing hearing on 9/26/22.
 
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