Elizabeth Holmes – the founder and former CEO of the now-infamous Blood Test, Theranos – could use her mental state as a defense against a number of federal fraud charges, according to court documents filed this week.
Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, former president of Holmes and Theranos, was charged in June 2018 with nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Federal prosecutors allege that the pair – who were romantically involved in the alleged crimes – were involved in a conspiracy to defraud Therenos investors of more than 100 100 million and that the company’s flawed blood-testing technology could provide reliably accurate health tests. Drops of blood from a finger-prick.
According to court documents filed this week, Holmes – who is now being tried separately from Balwani – notified the court last December that she planned to present “expert evidence regarding a mental illness or defect or other mental condition.” On which he will endure. The issue of crime. The expert who provided such evidence is named in the document as Mindy Mechanic, a psychologist at California State University, Fullerton.
According to the mechanic’s faculty website, it “focuses on the psychological and social consequences of violence, trauma and victimization, emphasizing violence against women and other forms of interpersonal violence.” The site also notes that the mechanic “frequently provides expert testimony in complex legal cases involving interpersonal violence.”
The court document goes on to say what the specific mental health testimony would cover, but the information has been reddened.
In response to Holmes ‘plan to provide mental health evidence, federal prosecutors requested that they also be able to investigate Holmes’ mental state and provide their own psychiatric evidence in court as a judicial rebuttal.
Implementer
The judge in the case, U.S. District Judge Edward DeVilla of the Northern District of California, agreed with the prosecution. As such, he ordered Holmes to undergo a 14-hour psychiatric examination and psychiatric evaluation by two doctors appointed by the government for two consecutive days. DeVilla also ordered that the government’s assessment of Holmes be recorded on video over Video-Holmes ’objections.
Theresa’s long, dramatic story and mental state defense in the recent turn of her beloved-married founder. Holmes, a college leaguer, attracted media attention after her debut in 2003 at the age of just 19. She was known for her bold choices of fashion choices and technological prowess like Steve Jobs. In 2014, the company was valued at 9 billion.
But according to several subsequent media investigations, Theranos’ technology was flawed and most of the company’s claims were misleading or false. Behind the scenes, Balwani was co-leading the company with Holmes and was known as an “promoter” around the office.
Holmes met Balwani when they were both studying Mandarin at Beijing University during the summer of 2002, when she was about 18 and 37 years old. He later became romantically involved and Balwani joined the company in 2009.
Holmes’ trial is currently scheduled for March 2021 and Balwani’s trial is expected to take place. Both face up to 20 years in prison.
