Quoted post unavailable.
Seems strange that she got away with more, I can't qwhite put my finger on it
She is much better looking than him. And pregnant. No bias at all.
Theranos exec Sunny Balwani sentenced to 13 years in prison
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Re: Theranos exec Sunny Balwani sentenced to 13 years in prison
#12> "It would certainly not be unprecedented if Balwani decides to appeal this ruling."
So, there's precedent for an appeal?
Re: Theranos exec Sunny Balwani sentenced to 13 years in prison
#13I'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…
I 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.
Re: Theranos exec Sunny Balwani sentenced to 13 years in prison
#14well deserved!
Re: Theranos exec Sunny Balwani sentenced to 13 years in prison
#15I'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
Oddly that was that account's only comment and they never commented again in the 9 years since.
Re: Theranos exec Sunny Balwani sentenced to 13 years in prison
#16Quoted post unavailable.
Fortunately, 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.
Can 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.
Re: Theranos exec Sunny Balwani sentenced to 13 years in prison
#17I'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…
I read the book and also agree with this. She was the CEO, but he "ran" the company. He also put millions of his own money into it to keep it afloat. He should've been the "adult supervision", so to speak.
I was thinking the same thing. But then it occurred to me that she was behaving like a version of Steve Jobs. How would then the "adult supervision" of Steve Jobs look like? Fired on the spot? I don't think it's easy or even possible to provide adult supervision in that environment.
Re: Theranos exec Sunny Balwani sentenced to 13 years in prison
#18I 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.
Re: Theranos exec Sunny Balwani sentenced to 13 years in prison
#19> "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.
Re: Theranos exec Sunny Balwani sentenced to 13 years in prison
#20I'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
It 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.