Live data from Hacker News

Theranos exec Sunny Balwani sentenced to 13 years in prison

techcrunch.com

91–100 of 121 posts

Re: Theranos exec Sunny Balwani sentenced to 13 years in prison

#91
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Following a three-month trial and deliberations over five days that ended in July, Balwani's jury returned guilty verdicts on all 12 charges brought by the Justice Department — seven counts of wire fraud for defrauding Theranos investors, two counts of wire fraud for defrauding paying patients, two counts for conspiring to defraud investors and patients, and one count for wire fraud related to Theranos advertisement…

All tort cases need someone to be the harmed by the crime. So of course the investors would be the central focus. How they pulled off the crime is how they are prosecuted though. Running the fake company that investors put money into is as critical (or more so given the due diligence process) as persuasively asking the investors for the money.

This was not a tort case.

Obviously people were harmed but it was a criminal case.

Re: Theranos exec Sunny Balwani sentenced to 13 years in prison

#92

sympathyFor(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.

If she is out in 2-3 years then your estimate will still be right.

Re: Theranos exec Sunny Balwani sentenced to 13 years in prison

#93

Surprised 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.

No post body was provided.

Re: Theranos exec Sunny Balwani sentenced to 13 years in prison

#94
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it would be safe to assume people in this high-flying financial orbit would have access to the sorts of people that could get them out of the country without a passport.

I've never had CBP check my passport when walking into Mexico. And Mexican officials are always asleep or absent when I pass through their side. No matter, all they require to enter Mexico is a US Birth Certificate (but they don't ask) lol. People leaving by private boat or plane are basically on a trust system; how the hell would they know if you're flying to Hawaii or not if headed to the Pacific, or whether you're…

Bulwani is from India not Pakistan

Re: Theranos exec Sunny Balwani sentenced to 13 years in prison

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never had CBP check my passport when walking into Mexico. And Mexican officials are always asleep or absent when I pass through their side. No matter, all they require to enter Mexico is a US Birth Certificate (but they don't ask) lol. People leaving by private boat or plane are basically on a trust system; how the hell would they know if you're flying to Hawaii or not if headed to the Pacific, or whether you're…

Pakistan does not have an extraction treaty with the US, so there is no need to hide there.

Sunny Bulwani is from India not Pakistan

Re: Theranos exec Sunny Balwani sentenced to 13 years in prison

#96

If 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 acce…

Both almost certainly surrendered their passports at initial arrest. The time to have fled was before that point.

Balwani wasn’t going to go back to Pakistan and they wouldn’t have taken him even if he tried.

Re: Theranos exec Sunny Balwani sentenced to 13 years in prison

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pakistan does not have an extraction treaty with the US, so there is no need to hide there.

Sunny Bulwani is from India not Pakistan

He was born to Pakistani Hindu family.

Re: Theranos exec Sunny Balwani sentenced to 13 years in prison

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never had CBP check my passport when walking into Mexico. And Mexican officials are always asleep or absent when I pass through their side. No matter, all they require to enter Mexico is a US Birth Certificate (but they don't ask) lol. People leaving by private boat or plane are basically on a trust system; how the hell would they know if you're flying to Hawaii or not if headed to the Pacific, or whether you're…

Bulwani is from India not Pakistan

He was Pakistani Hindu.

Re: Theranos exec Sunny Balwani sentenced to 13 years in prison

#99
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> she was distracted with the media and having dinners with politicians. She wasn't distracted, she was the distraction, the pretty young pretend-genius (with no college degree), white blonde lady in her Steve Jobs costume. Do you think Sunny would have gotten all those investments from old military guys?

CEOs are primarily sales people who exist to sell the company to investors, and to a lesser extent to employees. A talent for strategy and execution is useful but not essential. If you execute without selling, you don't have a company. If you sell without executing you can always write it off as a super-exciting best-effort failed adventure from which you learned a lot etc. As long as you avoid fraud, obvs. So yes -…

Executor?

Re: Theranos exec Sunny Balwani sentenced to 13 years in prison

#100

HE was convicted on 12 counts. She was convicted on 4 counts. 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.

fwiw, @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.
Post reply on HN