By Jody Godoy
(Reuters) – A U.S. jury on Thursday convicted former Theranos Inc President Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani of defrauding investors and patients about the blood testing startup that was once valued at $9 billion.
Balwani was convicted on two counts of conspiracy and 10 counts of fraud, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office confirmed.
The jury in San Jose, California, handed down its verdict after deliberating for a little more than five days.
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, who initially faced the same charges, was convicted on three counts of fraud and one count of conspiracy at a separate trial in January.
Balwani and Holmes were charged in 2018 with lying to investors about the company’s finances and its machines’ ability to run a broad range of tests from a few drops of blood. Prosecutors also charged the pair with duping patients about the tests’ accuracy.
(Reporting by Jody Godoy in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Howard Goller)
