Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani: President and Chief Operating Officer of Theranos

analysisUnder an Agreement and Plan of Reorganization of November 4, 1999, filed by Commerce One, Inc., COMMERCEBID.COM, Inc., a Delaware corporation whose principal shareholders included its chief executive Liron Petrushka and Ramesh Balwani, was to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Commerce One in exchange for up to 785,714 Commerce One shares. Commerce One announced that CommerceBid's chief executive, Liron Petrushka, and its President, Balwani, would join its executive management team. A newspaper reported in 2022 that Balwani had begun in software sales at Microsoft, that Commerce One reportedly paid $225 million and he left with almost $40 million, and that he met Holmes while studying computer science at Stanford, leaving the programme in 2008; the price and his proceeds are not documented in the Commerce One filing, which gives the consideration in shares. ^{1 2}

analysisIn 2009, as Theranos neared the end of its money, Holmes asked Balwani, then her boyfriend, to guarantee a line of credit, the SEC said; he did, joined the company and became President and Chief Operating Officer that year. The 2010 Form D lists him as an executive officer and director, and he signed Theranos's 2013 annual report to the Florida registry as President. The SEC alleged that he and Holmes were the only senior managing executives. According to the Ninth Circuit, the division of responsibilities was disputed at the trials, but evidence at both showed that he oversaw the patient-testing laboratory and was the main contact for Safeway and Walgreens. He told the SEC, in testimony quoted by the Ninth Circuit, that he built and owned the company's financial model from about 2010. The SEC put his salary for 2013 to 2015 at between about $99,000 and $200,000, and the U.S. Attorney's Office said trial evidence showed he owned nearly 30 million Theranos shares, more than 6 percent of the company. ^{1 2 3 4 5 6 7}

analysisRegulatory records name him. The FDA's Form 483 of September 2015, which found Theranos shipping an uncleared device that press reports named as its Nanotainer tube, was addressed to him as President, and CMS's 2016 correspondence lists him with Holmes as an owner of the Newark laboratory; CMS's July 2016 letter said owners and operators would be barred from running a laboratory for at least two years on revocation; under an April 2017 settlement, Theranos said, CMS withdrew the revocation and Theranos agreed to stay out of the blood-testing business for at least two years. Sunil Dhawan, a dermatologist who knew him personally, testified at Holmes's trial, as press reports recounted, that Balwani recruited him as laboratory director in 2014; press reports said he replaced Adam Rosendorff. ^{8 9 10 11 12}

analysisThe U.S. Attorney's Office said in 2018 that he had at times served as a member of the board as well as president and chief operating officer. Theranos announced on May 11, 2016 that he would retire and leave the board while supporting the transition. The SEC gives his tenure as September 2009 to May 2016; the U.S. Attorney's 2022 release says through July 2016. ^{13 14 1 15 7}

analysisThe SEC sued Balwani separately on March 14, 2018, seeking an injunction, a civil penalty and an officer-and-director bar. These were the SEC's charges, not court findings; Theranos and Holmes settled the same day without admitting or denying them, while he contested the charges, and his case was related to SEC v. Holmes in July 2018. Its final outcome is not in the record. ^{1 2 3 4 5}

analysisIndicted with Holmes on June 14, 2018, he pleaded not guilty and was tried separately; the indictment was an accusation, and on July 7, 2022 a jury convicted him on all twelve counts: conspiracy to defraud investors and patients, six counts of wire fraud on investors and four on patients; Holmes, tried first, had been convicted on four investor counts. On December 7, 2022 Judge Davila sentenced him to 155 months and three years of supervised release; he was ordered to surrender on March 15, 2023 and, under his second amended judgment, on April 20, 2023; a business news site reported that he entered prison in April 2023. With Holmes he owes $452,047,268 in restitution. The Ninth Circuit affirmed in February 2025 and denied rehearing in December 2025, and the Supreme Court denied his petition for certiorari on October 5, 2026. ^{6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16}

analysisHHS-OIG excluded him from federal health care programs for 90 years after his conviction for conspiracy to commit wire fraud against Theranos's patients and investors. In the Arizona patients' class action he withdrew his claims to Theranos's remaining assets as part of the 2024 settlement, while denying the allegations; the settlement, funded mainly by $44 million from Walgreens, was intended to repay consumers about double what they had paid for Theranos tests. ^{17 18 19 20}