What a difference two years makes. Once the subject of breathless headlines and breaking news, the latest news on the trials of Elizabeth Holmes and Ramesh ‘Sunny’ Balwani in la scandale Theranos earned hardly any notice in the healthcare press. Only this Editor’s search for an update found information that the Federal court trials, due to the pandemic and corresponding difficulty with trial preparation and jury selection, have been moved to 2021. Pretrial hearings for both have been moved to October and December.
So not to further punish our Readers who are dreaming of mountain lakes and ocean beaches, your Editor, a/k/a Glutton for Punishment, has summarized the Court’s next steps.
- The Holmes and Balwani trials have been severed–legalspeak for separated
- Holmes will go first starting on 9 March 2021 with jury selection in the Federal Court, San Jose, Judge Edward J. Davila presiding. Balwani’s trial will not start until Holmes’ trial is concluded.
- The next court hearings for Holmes will be 6 October (pretrial motion), 2 December (status), and 16 February 2021 (status)
- Balwani will have a status hearing on 8 December
In early August, the Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutor added a 12th fraud charge to Holmes’ list, relating to a patient’s blood test. A grand jury was empaneled in June during the midpoint of the pandemic, leading to Holmes’ legal team attempting to obtain 21 broad categories of documents on the jury selection. Their intent is to overturn the indictment as improper.
No need to stock up on popcorn till a month before Easter 2021, but it will be munch-worthy as rumored witnesses will be ‘faces’ such as General James Mattis (ret.), former board member and customer; Henry Kissinger; and Rupert Murdoch. This Editor’s bet is that these aged titans will not appear, with the exception of the youngest, General Mattis. More likely to be called to appear, in this Editor’s view, are executives from Walgreens who did the deal with Theranos, the last-ditch investors at Fortress Investment Group, major investors such as Partner Fund Management, and early unrepentant backer Tim Draper of Silicon Valley VC Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
The Federal charges are summarized in TTA 13 May]The full sturm und drang by chapter are here.
CNBC, US Department of Justice, Northern District of California published notice The 14 June indictment (15 pages)
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