Theranos Founder Claims Abuse By Ex-Boyfriend In Court Filings

Theranos Inc founder Elizabeth Holmes has accused her former boyfriend, who was president of the blood-testing startup, of abusing her, court documents unsealed over the weekend showed, hinting at a possible defense strategy with jury selection in her fraud trial set to start next week.

Photo Insert: Theranos founder, Elizabeth Holmes

In court filings submitted more than 18 months ago, Holmes' lawyers said they planned to present evidence that Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani abused her emotionally and psychologically in a relationship that spanned more than a decade.

That includes the period when the company claimed its technology could enable a wide array of medical tests with a few drops of blood. Nathan Layne reported for Reuters.

Theranos, which Holmes founded in 2003 at the age of 19, collapsed in March 2018 when she, Balwani, and the $9 billion company were charged with fraud by US regulators.

Theranos had made Holmes, a Stanford University dropout, a Silicon Valley star. The case is the United States v. Holmes, US District Court, Northern District of California, No. 18-cr-00258.

In the filings, Holmes' lawyers argued that the alleged "intimate partner abuse" was relevant to the question of whether she knew that financial information provided to investors and others was false.

Holmes intends to blame Balwani, alleging he exerted control over her through the abusive relationship, the filings indicate. Balwani, whose case is being handled separately, has denied the allegations.

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