Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, the 57-year-old former chief operating officer of biotech start-up Theranos, received a 155-month prison sentence for defrauding investors about the company’s products, CBS News reports.
Balwani’s sentence was greater than the one handed down to Theranos CEO, the more Hollywood-friendly Elizabeth Holmes, with whom he carried on a romantic relationship. Holmes claimed Balwani controlled her through psychological and sexual abuse.
Theranos gained a billion dollars in funding for a device which it claimed could diagnose myriad diseases and medical conditions using just a few drops of a patient’s blood. Although the company attempted to develop such a device, it never succeeded despite claims that it had.