Jury takes fraud case against Elizabeth Holmes's ex-partner

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — The fate of hard-nosed technology executive Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani is now in the hands of a jury that will weigh criminal charges alleging he joined disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, his former partner, in an elaborate fraud that jarred Silicon Valley.

U.S. District Judge Edward Davila handed the case to the jury Friday afternoon after federal prosecutors in San Jose, California, finished a rebuttal to more than 11 hours of closing arguments methodically laid out by one of Balwani’s lawyers, Jeffrey Coopersmith.

The jury will pore over testimony, emails, salacious texts, and other evidence submitted during a three-month trial as they sort through the 12 counts of fraud and conspiracy filed against Balwani for his role at Theranos, a blood-testing company founded by Holmes when she was just 19.

Balwani, 57, began dating Holmes, now 38, around the same time she dropped out of Stanford University in 2003 to found her startup. He helped Holmes behind the scenes until 2010 when he became Theranos' chief operating officer while he was living with Holmes. The couple broke up in 2016 as Theranos began to collapse amid revelations about serious problems with Theranos' technology that they had concealed from investors and patients.

A separate jury spent seven days deliberating over the evidence in Holmes’ trial before convicting her on four counts of investor fraud and conspiracy and acquitting her on four counts of patient fraud and conspiracy earlier this year. She could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison by Davila in a hearing scheduled for late September. The jury in Balwani’s trial is aware of Holmes’ conviction but has been ordered not to consider that in their deliberations.

The case revolves around allegations that Holmes and...