Elizabeth Holmes plans to claim at trial ex-boyfriend and Theranos business partner abused her

Published

4 years ago

August 28, 2021

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Elizabeth Holmes, founder and former CEO of Theranos, arrives for motion hearing on Monday, Nov. 4, 2019, at the U.S. District Court House inside Robert F. Peckham Federal Building in San Jose, California.

Yichuan Cao | NurPhoto | Getty Images

In a bombshell revelation just days before her criminal fraud trial, defense attorneys for Elizabeth Holmes claim she’s suffered a “decade-long campaign of psychological abuse” from her former boyfriend and business partner Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani.

“Balwani’s control included monitoring her calls, text messages, and emails; physical violence, such as throwing hard, sharp objects at her, restricting her sleep, monitoring her movements; and insisting that any success she achieved was because of him,” defense attorneys for former Theranos CEO Holmes wrote.

The revelation is contained in documents unsealed early Saturday morning by U.S. District Judge Edward Davila. Holmes met Balwani when she was 18 – he joined her blood-testing startup, Theranos, in 2009 as president and chief operating officer. The pair, who are each facing 10 counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy, later admitted in deposition tapes that they never told investors of their relationship.

Both have pleaded not guilty and deny any wrongdoing in connection with what federal prosecutors call a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud investors, doctors and patients.

Attorneys for Holmes plan to “introduce evidence that Mr. Balwani verbally disparaged and withdrew ‘affection if she displeased him;’ controlled what she ate, how she dressed, and how much money she could spend, who she could interact with – essentially dominating her and erasing her capacity to make decisions,” according to the unsealed filings.

“Ms. Holmes’ allegations are deeply offensive to Mr. Balwani, devastating personally to him,” Jefferey Coopersmith, an attorney for Balwani, wrote in the filings.

The documents also answer the question of whether Holmes plans to testify. “Ms. Holmes is likely to testify herself to the reasons why she believed, relied on and deferred to Mr. Balwani,” her attorneys wrote.

The filings also reveal that Holmes plans to argue she suffers from mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder, intimate-partner abuse syndrome, anxiety and depression due to her relationship with Balwani.

Balwani vehemently denied the allegations, citing them as a reason for his request for a separate trial, which was granted. Coopersmith writes that Holmes’ allegations “to establish her innocence would require him to defend against not only the government’s case, but to defend against her allegations as well because her allegations are so inflammatory that they cannot be left unrebutted before the jury.”

Lawyers for Holmes also asked to separate their trials, saying she “cannot be near him without suffering physical distress.”

“She argues that if she is tried together with Mr. Balwani, she will likely suffer stress and physical ailments that will manifest visually, such that she will not appear to the jury in her true sense.”

In 2020, Davila agreed that they would be tried separately. The records were unsealed in response to a motion by publisher Dow Jones, a move that defense attorneys for Holmes and Balwani tried to block until after jury selection.

Separating the trials is a strategy many legal analysts have said was an important ruling for Holmes.

“What it allows a defendant to do is to point, at trial, at the empty chair,” Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney and NBC News legal analyst, said. “To tell the jury that’s the real bad guy here, it was all him, and have the jury find some sympathy with that story and acquit Elizabeth Holmes.”

McQuade said this can go both ways, adding “of course at his trial where you have a different jury trying the case, he could do the same thing to her. Point to her empty chair and say it wasn’t Sunny, it was Elizabeth.”

Attorneys for Holmes and Balwani did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Jury selection for Holmes’ trial begins on Tuesday.

—CNBC’s Scott Cohn contributed to this report.

Technology

IBM shares drop despite earnings beat

Published

3 hours ago

July 23, 2025

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IBM CEO Arvind Krishna appears at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 16, 2024.

Stefan Wermuth | Bloomberg | Getty Images

IBM shares fell as much as 5% in extended trading on Wednesday after the tech conglomerate issued second-quarter results that topped Wall Street projections.

Here’s how the company did in comparison with LSEG consensus:

Earnings per share: $2.80 adjusted vs. $2.64 expected
Revenue: $16.98 billion vs. $16.59 billion

IBM’s revenue increased nearly 8% year over year in the quarter, according to a statement. Growth in the first quarter was below 1%. Net income, which includes costs related to acquisitions, rose to $2.19 billion, or $2.31 per share, from $1.83 billion, or $1.96 per share, a year ago.

Software revenue climbed about 10% to $7.39 billion, exceeding the $7.43 billion consensus among analysts surveyed by StreetAccount. Hybrid cloud revenue, including Red Hat, showed 16% growth. The software unit’s gross margin of 83.9% was barely narrower than StreetAccount’s 84.0% consensus.

Revenue from consulting rose almost 3% to $5.31 billion, higher than StreetAccount’s $5.16 billion consensus. Infrastructure revenue went up 14% to $4.14 billion, above the $3.75 billion StreetAccount average estimate.

During the quarter, IBM announced the next-generation z17 mainframe computer and the acquisition of data and artificial intelligence consulting firm Hakkoda.

IBM called for over $13.5 billion in 2025 free cash flow, similar to a projection from April. The company still sees at least 5% revenue growth at constant currency for the year.

As of Wednesday’s close, IBM shares were up 28% so far in 2025, while the S&P 500 index has gained around 8% in the same period.

Executives will discuss the results with analysts on a conference call starting at 5 p.m. ET.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

WATCH: Cramer’s Stop Trading: IBM

Technology

ServiceNow lifts guidance on AI growth

Published

3 hours ago

July 23, 2025

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Bill McDermott, Chairman, President & CEO ServiceNow, speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 17th, 2024.

Adam Galici | CNBC

ServiceNow posted strong second-quarter results and lifted its guidance Wednesday. Shares climbed 7% following the report.

Here’s how the company performed compared to LSEG estimates:

Earnings per share: $4.09 adjusted vs. $3.57 expected
Revenue: $3.22 billion vs. 3.12 billion expected

Subscription revenues, which account for the majority of the enterprise technology company’s revenues, hit $3.11 billion and topped a $3.03 billion forecast from StreetAccount.

The company boosted its full-year subscription revenue guidance to between $12.775 billion and $12.795 billion as it benefits from artificial intelligence adoption.

“Every business process in every industry is being refactored for agentic AI,” said ServiceNow chairman and CEO Bill McDermott in a release.

Net income grew 47% to $385 million, or $1.84 per share, from $262 million, or $1.26 per share a year ago. Revenues grew nearly 23% to about $3.22 billion.

Texas Instruments stock falls 12% as CEO warns of tariff concerns

Published

7 hours ago

July 23, 2025

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Texas Instruments stock falls 12% as CEO warns of tariff concerns

The Texas Instruments headquarters in Dallas, Texas, US, on Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024.

N. Johnson | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Texas Instruments shares plunged 12% after the automotive and industrial semiconductor supplier warned of ongoing tariff aftershocks.

The company said it expects third-quarter earnings between $1.36 and $1.60 per share, a midpoint of $1.48 per share. That fell short of an LSEG estimate of $1.50.

Texas Instruments anticipates revenues between $4.45 billion and $4.48 billion. The midpoint of $4.63 billion was slightly ahead of the $4.59 billion expected by analysts.

In an earnings call with analysts, CEO Haviv Ilan said the company is experiencing a “shallow” recovery in the automotive sector and said customers may have lingering worries over tariffs and geopolitical uncertainty.