In July, Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani was convicted of 12 counts of fraud for his role in Theranos, the Silicon Valley blood testing company that made false claims about its blood testing products. On Wednesday, in a San Jose, Calif., federal courtroom Balwani was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison for his crimes, multiple outlets report.
"They misled investors, they misled patients,"U.S. District Court Judge Edward Davila stated during the 58-year-old Balwani's sentencing, NBC News reports.
In a statement to CNN, Jeffrey Coopersmith, Balwani's attorney, said, "We are disappointed with the outcome. We respectfully disagree and plan to appeal."
In mid-November, Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos and Balwani's ex-girlfriend, was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for her actions with Theranos.
Theranos was once valued at about $9 billion, and Holmes was named one of Forbes' richest women in America.
Balwani helped Holmes build and eventually run the company, working as an informal adviser in her young startup days. The couple dated for 10 years and Balwani eventually joined Theranos in a formal capacity, working as its president and COO, though the duo reportedly didn't advertise their romantic relationship around the office.
Theranos' executives made false claims that the company's technology could perform hundreds of medical tests with only a few drops of a patient's blood. These flashy statements attracted major financial investors like Walgreens and Safeway....
Over the last year, beyond traditional healthcare and federal procurement matters, the government has pursued federal False Claims Act (FCA) investigations and enforcement across high-risk areas, ...