Theranos Government Sunny Balwani’s Prison-Fraud Trial Delayed Amid Covid-19 Publicity

Mr. Balwani, who can also be the ex-boyfriend of Ms. Holmes, faces a dozen counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud. Mr. Balwani has pleaded not responsible to the costs.

Ms. Holmes, Theranos’s chief govt officer who began the corporate as a Stanford College dropout, was convicted in January on 4 counts of legal fraud tied to lies she informed to traders about her firm’s know-how and enterprise operations. She can be sentenced in September.

The trial, which has confronted delays due to the pandemic, was dealt one other setback when U.S. District Choose Edward Davila introduced to the courtroom that somebody who had been in court docket Tuesday for jury choice had contact with one other one who had examined optimistic for Covid. The one that had been in court docket examined adverse for the virus, Choose Davila mentioned.

“Out of an abundance of warning,” the decide mentioned, “We’re going to take a break at present.”

Mr. Balwani’s trial was beforehand scheduled to start out in January, after which February, however was pushed out to mid-March because of the surge in instances from the Omicron variant. Ms. Holmes’s trial equally had a hiccup when after simply someday of testimony, a juror mentioned he might have had a Covid publicity, prompting the court docket to cancel a day of trial.

Opening statements in Mr. Balwani’s trial have been pushed again already this week due to prolonged juror questioning. A part of the problem, notably for the protection, was that many jurors mentioned they’d adopted Ms. Holmes’s carefully lined trial within the information, and a few mentioned they have been conscious of the responsible verdict in her case and of her romantic relationship with Mr. Balwani.

Many mentioned they’d watched a lately launched tv sequence primarily based on Theranos on streaming service Hulu—which has had quite a few commercials on social media and elsewhere.

“In case you had a detailed member of the family who was on trial, would you desire a juror seated who had discovered the issues that you just discovered from the Hulu present?”

Jeffrey Coopersmith,

Mr. Balwani’s lawyer, requested a potential juror.

Attorneys spent 5 days weeding by three panels of potential jurors to pick out 12 jurors and 6 alternates.

Mr. Balwani, 56 years outdated, was chief working officer and president at Theranos from 2009 to 2016. Prosecutors allege Mr. Balwani misled sufferers and traders in regards to the capabilities of Theranos’s blood-testing know-how, attractive them with claims that the corporate might take a look at for greater than 200 well being situations utilizing only a few drops of blood from a finger prick.

In Ms. Holmes’s trial, jurors heard a distinct actuality: The corporate used its proprietary system for simply 12 kinds of affected person assessments, and relied on industrial blood analyzers for the remaining. The outcomes have been unreliable, based on trial testimony, at occasions giving false take a look at outcomes for most cancers, HIV, blood issues and being pregnant.

Theranos dissolved in September 2018, shedding many of the $945 million traders poured into the corporate.

Mr. Balwani’s identify was introduced up repeatedly by witnesses in Ms. Holmes’s trial, because the supply of economic projections given to traders that turned out to be inflated and inaccurate, and as co-architect of an organization tradition of worry, isolation and retaliation. The trial divulged particulars of Mr. Balwani’s romantic relationship with Ms. Holmes that spanned greater than a decade, largely by the publication of tons of of textual content messages the onetime couple exchanged.

When Ms. Holmes took the stand in her personal protection, she alleged Mr. Balwani emotionally, psychologically and sexually abused her for years, saying that he managed what she ate, how a lot to sleep and when she might spend time together with her household and buddies.

A lawyer for Mr. Balwani has denied all allegations of abuse, calling them “deeply offensive to Mr. Balwani, devastating personally to him.”

Ms. Holmes and Mr. Balwani have been indicted collectively in June 2018, however Choose Davila agreed in March 2020 to Mr. Balwani’s request to sever the trials so they might have separate court docket appearances. Choose Davila presided over Ms. Holmes’s trial and also will oversee Mr. Balwani’s proceedings.

Mr. Balwani’s trial will cowl acquainted floor, since he faces practically equivalent prices to Ms. Holmes. Some witnesses will make repeat appearances. A lawyer for Mr. Balwani mentioned jurors might hear from former Theranos lab employee Erika Cheung and former lab director Adam Rosendorff, who every gave key testimony in Ms. Holmes’s trial. Mr. Balwani’s attorneys have made lots of the similar motions that Ms. Holmes did to exclude sure proof and testimony.

With Mr. Balwani, prosecutors may look to enhance their case concerning the sufferers Theranos allegedly defrauded. Ms. Holmes was discovered not responsible of 5 of six fraud prices associated to sufferers. The federal government was compelled to drop the sixth cost halfway by trial, after making an error that concerned mixing up the names of blood assessments.

Write to Heather Somerville at Heather.Somerville@wsj.com