Former Theranos executive Sunny Balwani denied new trial
Balwani was convicted on 12 fraud charges in June
Former Theranos executive Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani's request for a new trial was swatted down by a federal judge on Wednesday, despite co-conspirator and Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes receiving a hearing for a new trial last week.
Sunny Balwani, former president of Theranos Inc., arrives at federal court in San Jose, California, U.S., on Wednesday, June 29, 2022. (Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Balawani was found guilty in June of 12 federal criminal fraud charges for taking part in scamming investors in an elaborate scheme with Holmes, his former girlfriend.
Holmes was convicted in January of one charge of conspiracy and three charges of fraud for her role in the scam. She was originally accused of 11 charges, and a jury could not reach a verdict on three of them.
Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes goes through a security checkpoint as she arrives at federal court on Sept. 1, 2022 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Attorneys for Holmes, 38, filed a motion in federal court last month asking for a new trial citing "newly discovered evidence" pertaining to Dr. Adam Rosendorff, a former Theranos lab director and key government witness.
According to the filing, Rosendorff called Holmes and one of her attorneys last month seeking a meeting before driving to the disgraced founder's home and having a conversation with her partner, William Evans.
Holmes' defense team claims Rosendorff expressed regret to Evans over his testimony, and allegedly said that "the government made things sound worse than they were."
Theranos founder and former CEO Elizabeth Holmes along with her partner Billy Evans (R) depart the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building on Nov. 22, 2021 in San Jose, California. (Ethan Swope/Getty Images / Getty Images)
But Rosendorff submitted a sworn statement to the court via prosecutors saying that he stands by his testimony.
The disgraced Theranos founder's sentencing hearing, which was previously set for Oct. 17, was continued by a federal judge in San Jose earlier this month, and the court will instead hold a hearing that day on her defense team's motion for a new trial based on Rosendorff's alleged statements to Evans.
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Balwani's attorneys sought a new trial for their client on the same grounds, but Judge Edward Davila wrote in his two-page denial Wednesday that Rosendorff's statements "related exclusively to his testimony during Ms. Holmes' trial, not Mr. Balwani's trial," according to the Bay City News Foundation.