Ex-Theranos exec 'Sunny' Balwani seeks to join Elizabeth Holmes' effort for new trial
SAN JOSE – Convicted Theranos executive Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani asked a federal judge Thursday to allow him to participate in efforts by his former business partner and lover Elizabeth Holmes to get a new trial.
In July of this year, Balwani was convicted of wire fraud based on his role in selling investors and patients on Theranos' malfunctioning blood testing technology.
Balwani and Holmes were originally charged in the same indictment with 12 counts of fraud and conspiracy. Holmes, who went to trial first, was convicted of four counts of wire fraud related to investors and acquitted of four counts related to patients.
The remaining four counts were dismissed—three because the jury could not reach a verdict and one because the prosecution failed to make various disclosures about its evidence.
Balwani was later convicted of all 12 counts.
Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila granted Holmes' request for an evidentiary hearing on her claims that, in an unusual conversation with her partner William Evans at their residence months after her conviction, key prosecution witness Adam Rosendorff expressed uncertainty about the trial proceedings and regret about his role in the case.
Rosendorff is expected to appear and testify in person at the evidentiary hearing.
Davila limited the hearing to the question whether prosecutors had manipulated Rosendorff or his testimony.
Balwani's motion says that Rosendorff's alleged change of heart, if proven, provides an even stronger basis for a new trial in his case than in Holmes.
Highlighting Rosendorff's alleged statements to Evans to the effect that "everyone at Theranos was working hard to do something good and meaningful and doing the best they could," the Balwani motion argues that such testimony would be "a far cry" from Rosendorff's assertions at trial that Balwani "repeatedly ignored" Rosendorff's concerns about the development of testing procedures at the now-defunct company.
Even more, the Balwani defense argues, Rosendorff's statements may be "the tip of the iceberg" of government misconduct in trying to "paint a misleading picture of the facts."
Balwani, the motion asserts, should also be granted leave to participate in the evidentiary hearing because Rosendorff's negative portrait of the "systemic reliability of Theranos's technology" was "essential ... to the patient-fraud counts."
Those charges, Balwani, asserts, "would completely unravel with different, more honest" testimony from Rosendorff in a new trial.
The evidentiary hearing in Holmes case is set for Oct. 17. Holmes' sentencing, originally scheduled for that date, will be moved to a later date to be agreed on by her defense and federal prosecutors, if her new trial motion is denied.
Balwani, currently scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 15, has asked that his sentencing be moved to a date sometime after Holmes receives her sentence.