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There are just days until Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes faces criminal fraud charges at trial, newly unsealed court documents (via NPR) reveal evidence that his lawyers could call in his defense.
If you can’t remember the details of the scandal spelled out in a book, documentary and more than one podcast series, Theranos told investors he had developed groundbreaking blood testing technology capable of delivering amazing results based on on a few small drops. Theranos had been valued at as much as $ 9 billion before reports exposed his inaccurate results and the use of modified machines by other companies to perform crucial tests instead of his own Edison device. The company closed in 2016, and federal prosecutors indicted Holmes and Balwani (pdf) two years later with wire fraud, citing investors and patients as victims of their deception.
That brings us to 2019 and 2020 when lawyers filed these documents in an ultimately successful attempt to separate the two defendants. They are now public due to a challenge (pdf) from the the Wall Street newspaper.
Lawyers for Holmes have argued that for more than a decade she and Balwani – who was 20 years older and met Holmes when she was an 18-year-old student at Stanford – had an abusive relationship that included ” monitoring their calls, text messages and emails. ; physical violence, such as throwing hard, pointed objects at her, restricting her sleep, monitoring her movements; and insisting that any success she got was because of him, ”as reported CNBC.
While it is not certain what strategy will be used in Holmes’ defense, The Wall Street Journal notes that his lawyers wrote that it was “very likely that Holmes would testify” to Balwani’s abusive behavior. Balwani’s lawyers have also called for separate trials, denying these allegations of abusive behavior and said his allegations would prejudice potential jurors. According to his attorney Jeffrey Coopersmith, “Ms. Holmes’ allegations are deeply offensive to Mr. Balwani, devastating to him personally.
Documents submitted by Holmes’ attorneys show they have gathered expert testimony that could be used in a mental health defense claiming that she suffers from PTSD, domestic violence syndrome and depression due to Balwani and to another incident. According to documents revealed by the Wall Street Journal, they could claim that “due to her deference to Mr. Balwani, she believed various representations to be true.”
Jury selection for Elizabeth Holmes’ trial is set to begin in San Jose on Tuesday, with Balwani’s trial scheduled to begin in 2022.
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