Elizabeth Holmes and Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani’s appeals to overturn their fraud convictions and scale back their jail sentences had been denied Monday by the Northern District Court docket of California, which additionally refused to melt their $452 million joint restitution order.
Holmes, the founding father of Theranos, and Balwani, its former COO, had been convicted in separate trials in 2022 for defrauding buyers concerning the capabilities of Theranos’s blood-testing expertise. Holmes was sentenced to greater than 11 years in jail, and Balwani obtained practically 13 years. Each started serving their sentences in 2023.
Of their enchantment, the 2 argued that the district courtroom allowed improper testimony from former Theranos staff who served as lay witnesses however wound up providing improper skilled testimony with out the required authorized designation. The appeals panel agreed that some testimony crossed into skilled territory however concluded the errors had been innocent.
Holmes additionally contested the inclusion of a damning government report that highlighted failures in Theranos’s lab, arguing it unfairly influenced the jury. However the courtroom discovered the report related in establishing her data and intent. Holmes argued that her rights had been violated when she was prohibited from cross-examining a former Theranos laboratory director relating to facets of his post-Theranos employment. Once more, the appellate panel disagreed, saying the courtroom didn’t “abuse its discretion in limiting the scope of the cross-examination.”
In the meantime, Balwani claimed his fees had been improperly expanded in the course of the trial (the panel dismissed this argument fairly forcefully). He additionally argued that his proper to a good trial was violated as a result of the federal government didn’t appropriate what he stated was false testimony from two buyers. The courtroom rejected that argument, too, saying even when there have been points, they wouldn’t have affected the end result of the case.
Balwani is serving out his sentence on the grimly named Terminal Island, a minimum-security federal facility simply outdoors of Los Angeles; Holmes is serving hers at FPC Bryan, a minimal safety federal jail camp that’s roughly 100 miles from Houston.