Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes testified tearfully Monday that former company president Sunny Balwani, her romantic partner for more than a decade, belittled her, controlled her diet, sought to keep her from her family and forced sex on her when she displeased him.
In the most emotional testimony yet at the former CEO’s trial on charges that her blood-testing start-up was based on fraud, Holmes described a relationship that began with Balwani giving her advice and ended with her questioning why she was staying with him. “He wasn’t who I thought he was,” she testified.
The stunning allegations brought into focus a key element in Holmes’ defense against damning evidence, including her appropriation of pharmaceutical giants’ logos for Theranos reports that she sent to investors, her statements to investors about purported military use of her company’s blood-testing machines, and testimony by former employees and patients about serious accuracy problems in the testing.
Throughout her testimony, Holmes has sought to defend herself by insisting that she never sought to mislead anyone, by blaming others for problems in Theranos’ labs and by explaining that company scientists never told her about repeated issues with accuracy and reliability in patient blood test results — testimony that prosecutors will try to rebut when cross-examination begins Tuesday.
But on Monday, her fourth day on the witness stand, Holmes appeared to answer the biggest question that has hung over her...
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