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Theranos exec Sunny Balwani sentenced to 13 years in prison
- lizardactivist 4y agoSurprised that he got a longer sentence than Holmes. She really must have made him out like the devil during interrogation and trial. No doubt the nasty old US American racism factored into it, too.
- smegsicle 4y ago
- LeroyRaz 4y ago
- tasuki 4y agoMy reading of the situation is that Elisabeth Holmes was his victim. Not saying she's innocent, but I think she was in a tougher situation than Sunny Balwani.
- nova22033 4y agoHe was convicted on 12 counts. She was convicted on 4 counts.
- vr46 4y agoSeems strange that she got away with more, I can't qwhite put my finger on it
- tamaharbor 4y agoShe is much better looking than him. And pregnant. No bias at all.
- vr46 4y agoYes, you've convinced me. Can't argue with either of those.
- compiler-guy 4y agoFortunately, all the court proceedings, arguments, and reasoning are entirely public, so an academic could examine all of this very closely and report on how sexism may or may not have played a role in the disparate sentencing. Any such analysis would have to start with the fact that he was convicted on 12 counts, and she was convicted on 4.
- LeroyRaz 4y agoCan not what you are convicted of also be biased? Statistically the gender bias in sentencing is very established / clear cut. There is a lot of academic literature on it. It seems strange to expect this bias to not have influenced this case too.
- dev_tty01 4y agoWere you in the courtroom for the trials? Did you read all the briefs and transcripts and review all the evidence? They were able to prove 4 counts against her and 12 against him. What is provable and which counts relate to what sentences isn't necessarily intuitive. Why jump to the assumption of sexism without all the relevant info? Even if you had the info, do you have the legal qualifications to evaluate it? I for one choose to trust my peers who spent weeks hearing all of this and poring over the details. Could it be biased? Sure, that's possible, juries aren't perfect. I just don't understand the rush to assume a sexist bias based solely on the aggregate sentence lengths.
- dmix 4y agoI'm happy he got even more than Holmes (11 vs 13). The book made him sound worse than she was and he was the mastermind internally at keeping the staff working and building a culture of misdirection and obedience. He was firing people on an almost daily basis for a while whenever someone questioned their bullshit. Holmes was the showpiece, who got to play the pretend female Steve Jobs visionary role to the press and investors. And naturally took most of the heat. But the house of cards would probably have fallen apart way sooner if he didn't run the show in the background.
- LeroyRaz 4y agoI read the book and I disagree. Ultimately creating a toxic work environment is not why they are going to jail, but for deceiving the public, and investors. Holmes (the person playing Steve Jobs) lead that. I have little doubt that if the genders were reversed that Holmes sentence could be easily twice Sunny's.
- highwaylights 4y agoThis - I mentioned in another thread when Holmes was sentenced that even if convicted she'll not spend that long in jail (maybe 5 years, most of it on license I would guess?). I suspect Balwani will serve most if not all of the 13 years. I've no wish to defend either of these people given what they've done, I just think it's worth pointing out that ignoring the disparity doesn't make it go away.
- sharadov 4y agowell deserved!
- nova22033 4y agoHE was convicted on 12 counts. She was convicted on 4 counts. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/07/1141278121/theranos-sunny-balwani-sentencing-elizabeth-holmes https://www.npr.org/2022/12/07/1141278121/theranos-sunny-bal... In July, a jury found Balwani guilty on all 12 felony counts of defrauding Theranos investors and the patients that used the company's unreliable blood tests. In comparison, Holmes was convicted of four wire-fraud related counts and sentenced to a little over 11 years in prison last month.
- dmix 4y agoWhat is the sentencing guidelines of wire-fraud vs defrauding investors? I have a feeling that would answer this implied question.
- x0x0 4y agofwiw, @popehat, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor, has repeatedly made the point that judges can, and do, take into account counts on which a defendant was not convicted, and sentence them for that conduct.
- achow 4y agoDifferent juries, different outcomes for the same crimes.. Unlike the jury at Holmes’ trial, the jury at Balwani’s trial held him accountable for defrauding patients, not just investors.
- jimbob45 4y agoI've been waiting for a Theranos post to dredge something up. On a very early Theranos post in 2013, there was a commenter who identified the company as a scam several years early. Naturally, they received minimal attention. Interestingly, though, it was the only comment they ever made. I've wondered if it was a disgruntled insider wanting the truth to come out. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6349808 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6349808
- aerovistae 4y agoOddly that was that account's only comment and they never commented again in the 9 years since.
- zacharycohn 4y agoThat is how throwaways work..
- zozbot234 4y agoIt wasn't just a single commenter. Many people over the years commented here at HN that the Theranos folks were outright delusional and batshit crazy. Unfortunately, the investors and patients who ultimately joined in that collective delusion weren't really aware of HN back in the day.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- phendrenad2 4y agoThese old comments have been analyzed to death on HN actually.
- philip1209 4y ago> "It would certainly not be unprecedented if Balwani decides to appeal this ruling." So, there's precedent for an appeal?
- function_seven 4y agoEh, it's just clumsily worded. Here's my rewrite: > Balwani will likely appeal this ruling. Most defendants do.
- transfire 4y agoI love how I, as a lowly middle-class person, can invest money in a company and if they were pulling the wool over my eyes and I lost my investment, it’s all “oh well, buyer beware”. But let it be some big wigs investing in a disruptive tech (that makes the status quo oh so nervous) then it’s all pitchforks and fire — those devils be damned. Hence I note the faint stench of Denmark in there somewhere.
- DoktorDelta 4y agoIt's less "disruptive tech" and more "tech that didn't work and reported incorrect results".
- erehweb 4y agoPeople went to jail for Enron, no? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_Kenneth_Lay_and_Jeffrey_Skilling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_Kenneth_Lay_and_Jeffr...
- zozbot234 4y ago> that makes the status quo oh so nervous Nervous? The Theranos approach could not possibly work, and serious researchers were well aware of that. There's even a completely hilarious video online where some folks point this out with the most astonishing diplomacy and politeness but nonetheless in the clearest of terms, while Holmes is forced into some sort of clumsy damage control.
- transfire 4y agoNot true at all.
- excerionsforte 4y ago> "I am responsible for everything at Theranos." I guess that text really bit him at the jury trial. Held him liable for defrauding both investors and patients unlike the CEO.
- dylan604 4y agoIf you were someone that was a defendant in a case like this where another case finished before you that ended in prison sentence, the natural assumption would be yours is heading the same way. The psychology of that must be intense. If you're the type that accepted that fate, you can start making proper plans for your incarceration too. But these are people that scammed others, so I would assume not the type to accept that fate. I'm curious how strong the temptation to flee would be?
- notch656a 4y agoCarlos Ghosn agrees with your sentiment.
- twelve40 4y agothat guy is on another level : ) > splitting his time between Paris and Tokyo and logging roughly 150,000 miles (241 400 km) in airplanes per year even before his latest adventures, he lived a very, very intense life all over the world, including the Lebanon, which is an adventure on its own. It'd be harder to pull off for an average tech executive.
- version_five 4y agoIf I'm ever a multi- billionaire, I will invest in a stand-by exfiltratiom team that is ready to get me out of whatever I get into and take me to a friendly place. If guys like Musk and Gates don't have this, their priorities are all wrong. I assume Peter Thiel does.
- staticman2 4y agoI'll gladly take your money to be on standby to exfiltrate you, good sir, and happily say "Sorry boss, can't be done" if you ever ask me to actually risk jail time for your privileged, billionnaire ass.
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- faangiq 4y ago
- tinalumfoil 4y ago> Mr. Balwani’s former business partner and ex-girlfriend, Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, was sentenced last month to 11¼ years for four counts of criminal fraud tied to her now defunct blood-testing startup. > U.S. District Judge Edward Davila, who oversaw both trials, could choose to give Mr. Balwani more time in prison than Ms. Holmes because he was found guilty on additional counts, lawyers said. Judge Davila could find that investors suffered a larger loss due to Mr. Balwani’s fraud, or that Mr. Balwani recklessly put patients at risk of death or serious bodily injury, both of which could add years to his sentence. > “VCs invest in very strange ways,” Judge Davila said. So do courts apparently.
- insane_dreamer 4y agonice to see justice served
- __lbracket__ 4y agosympathyFor(pretty white female pregnant with pretty white child) > sympathyFor(stinky brown man) Given this uncomfortable fact, I'd expected Balwani to get 2-4x more than Holmes. But hope in humanity enhanced upon seeing their almost similar sentences.
- givemeethekeys 4y agoIf she is out in 2-3 years then your estimate will still be right.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]