Elizabeth Holmes is back in the spotlight due to her involvement in the documentary “You Can See Everything.”
Directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, the nearly three-hour film shows the Theranos CEO and founder weeks before she reported to a federal prison in Texas in 2023.
While “You Can See Everything” centers around Holmes, her partner William “Billy” Evans and their two children at their home in San Diego, California, it also touches on her now-defunct company once poised to revolutionize the blood testing industry.
It also briefly looks at her romantic relationship with the company’s former president and chief operating officer Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani.
At the age of 19, Holmes dropped out of Stanford to found the biotech startup, which aimed to perform hundreds of tests using a single drop of blood. However, Theranos’ technology proved unable to follow through with its founder’s promises, despite raising over $900 million from investors.
Holmes was sentenced to 11 years in prison after being convicted of four counts of investor fraud and conspiracy. Balwani was found guilty of 12 counts of fraud and sentenced to 12 years.
The saga of Theranos played out in courts, exposés, podcasts, and shows like Hulu’s “The Dropout” that covered Holmes and Balwani’s history together.
Below, find out more about Sunny Balwani, including where he is now.
Balwani and Holmes’ first meeting took place during Stanford’s Mandarin language immersion program Beijing in 2002, according to “Bad Blood” by John Carreyrou.
They were in different phases of life. Holmes, 18, was heading into her freshman year at Stanford. Balwani was 37. A software executive, Balwani made a fortune before the dotcom bubble burst in 2000, earning about $40 million in the acquisition of his company per the New York Times.
In 2004, Holmes left Stanford University to start Theranos. In 2017, Balwani revealed he gave Holmes a personal loan to use for Theranos in 2009.
“The company was low on cash, and I knew of the mission and that what the company was trying to do was paramount, and I offered to help the company, and I ended up giving a $13 million personal loan,” he explained in a 2017 deposition, obtained on ABC’s “The Dropout” podcast. “It was interest-free. It was a good-faith loan.”
Six months after giving the personal loan, Balwani became the president and COO of Theranos. As prospectors pointed out during his trial per NBC, Balwani “had no medical degree, no experience in blood testing, (and) no experience building medical devices or running a lab.”
Balwani worked at Theranos until 2016, per the Justice Department.
Unbeknownst to Theranos investors or employees, Holmes and Balwani were carrying out a romantic relationship, and had lived together since 2005, per “Bad Blood.”
In testimony given during her trial, Holmes claimed that Balwani had emotionally and sexually abused her. Balwani has denied all abuse accusations.
Balwani’s trial began in California in March 2022 and ended on July 7 with a guilty verdict. The disgraced executive faced two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, as well as nine counts of actual wire fraud.
According to U.S. v. Elizabeth Holmes, et al., the charges stemmed from accusations that Balwani and Holmes took part in a multi-million-dollar scheme to defraud investors, doctors and patients.
Similar to Holmes’ separate trial (which ended in January 2022), a jury was asked to determine whether Balwani intended to deceive Theranos’ investors about patients about the capabilities of the company’s blood-testing machines, or if he was unaware of their foibles the entire time.
During the trial’s opening statements on March 22, a federal prosecutor cast Balwani as Holmes’ right-hand man, helping sell investors, patients, and health providers on Theranos’ machines’ testing capabilities.
Conversely, Balwani’s lawyer Stephen Cazares, according to the New York Times, chose to deflect blame onto Holmes in his opening statement. “Sunny Balwani did not start Theranos. He did not control Theranos. Elizabeth Holmes, not Sunny, founded Theranos and built Theranos,” Cazares said.
In early July, the former top executive of Theranos was convicted of fraud for misleading investors about the financial health of the health care startup, according to NBC News. Balwani was convicted on all 12 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
During both Holmes and Balwani’s trials, text exchanges were submitted as evidence. According to NBC, the texts amounted to 12,000 total.
Some texts showed how they perceived their relationship. In one 2014 exchange shared during Holmes’ trial per the Washington Post, Balwani wrote, “I love you. I admire your wisdom and your strength; and your decency and kindness.” Holmes replied, “You know what these things coming from you mean to me. What you say to me equals my confidence.”
Other texts showed their approach to the business. In April 2022, NBC provided an exchange included in Balwani’s trial, in which Balwani texted Holmes, “…this business…that’s why the universe brought us together.” Holmes replied, “I know.”
In another text, sent in July 2015, Balwani wrote, “I am responsible for everything at Theranos,” per NBC.
Court testimony revealed that in 2013, Balwani and Holmes created an LLC to purchase a $9 million, five-bedroom, seven-bathroom home based in Atherton, California.
According to Market Watch, Balwani sold the house for $15.8 million in Jan. 2022.
Balwani reported to prison in April 2023, according to CNN.
He is currently at FCI Lompoc II, a low-security federal prison in Lompoc, California.
He is scheduled to be released on April 21, 2033, according to the prison record.
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