Theranos exec Sunny Balwani loses bid to delay prison term
A federal choose has rejected former Theranos govt Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani’s bid to stay free whereas he appeals his conviction for crimes he dedicated throughout a blood-testing rip-off he orchestrated along with his former boss and lover, Elizabeth Holmes.
The 17-page ruling issued late Thursday pushes Balwani, 57, a step nearer to having to start an almost 13-year jail sentence he acquired after a jury convicted him of 12 counts of fraud and conspiracy final yr.
Balwani is scheduled to report back to jail March 16 until he can win a reprieve from a federal appeals court docket in a movement his attorneys say they plan to file. He had been scheduled to report March 15, however was granted an extra day of freedom in one other order issued late Thursday by U.S. District Judge Edward Davila.
Unless the appeals court docket guidelines he can stay free, Balwani has been ordered to report back to an Atlanta federal jail, in response to court docket paperwork. The 121-year-old jail has been stricken by misconduct and different abuses described by whistleblowers throughout a congressional listening to final yr.
Davila, who sentenced Balwani and denied his request to stay free on attraction, had advisable he serve his time in a Lompoc jail. That facility is situated about 250 miles (400 kilometers) from the San Jose, California, courtroom the place his trial unfolded final yr.
The choose’s denial of Balwani’s request to stay free on attraction might not bode nicely for Holmes, Theranos’ CEO and founder. Her attorneys are additionally pushing Davila to permit her to remain out of jail throughout an attraction of her conviction on 4 felony counts of investor fraud and conspiracy. A March 17 listening to has been scheduled for Holmes’ attorneys to attempt to persuade Davila to permit her to stay free till the appeals case is resolved.
Holmes, 39, is scheduled to begin a sentence of greater than 11 years on April 27. That will separate her from a 1-year-old son she had shortly earlier than her trial started in September 2021 and a just lately born baby she was carrying at her November sentencing.
Although that they had separate trials, Holmes and Balwani have been accused of primarily the identical crimes centered on a ruse touting Theranos’ blood-testing system as a revolutionary breakthrough in well being care. The claims helped the corporate turn out to be a Silicon Valley sensation that raised almost US$1 billion from buyers.
But its know-how by no means got here near working like Holmes and Balwani boasted, leading to Theranos’ scandalous collapse and a felony case that shined a shiny mild on Silicon Valley greed and hubris.
Davila hasn’t but selected how a lot cash Holmes and Balwani every ought to must pay for his or her crimes. Federal prosecutors are in search of restitution of almost US$900 million.
In a listening to final month on Balwani’s bid to stay free, his attorneys alleged federal prosecutors had distorted and misrepresented path proof in a way that makes it possible Balwani will prevail in his attraction of the convictions. The attorneys additionally pointed to Balwani’s non-violent historical past and previous charity work in India as justification for him remaining free, asserting that he poses no hazard to the neighborhood.
Although Davila agreed Balwani is neither a flight danger nor harmful, he concluded that also wasn’t sufficient to permit him to delay his time in jail. Davila wrote that he did not discover proof elevating “substantial question of law or fact” throughout Balwani’s four-month trial that might advantage overturning the jury’s verdict.
