The woman cried on the stand as she described being raped. She testified that it was a factor in her dropping out of college. She said on the witness stand that she decided to build a life by building this company. She said that she was safe after she met her co-conspirator, who is being tried separately.
She said that he raped her.
The former CEO of Theranos, ElizabethHolmes, is on trial for 11 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. There are recordings of the man lying to people. She was going to try to shift blame onto Balwani, the company's former president, since the opening statements. Balwani's lawyer has previously denied allegations of abuse.
A monkey is trying to fly.
The witnesses in the trial said that Balwani deferred to Holmes. They said that in meetings where both were present,Holmes did most of the talking and ran the meetings. James Mattis, a former Theranos board member, testified that he believed that the company was in charge of its founder. The team that worked on the investment in Theranos didn't do comprehensive research because they didn't want to upset Elizabeth.
Balwani had control over what she ate, how she dressed, and how she spoke, according to the woman. She claimed he was texting her while they were in meetings. We saw a document that was identified as Balwani's handwriting and she said it contained instructions for her. He said she was like a monkey trying to fly a spaceship.
When she was 18, Balwani met a person named Holmes. He was 37 years old. She knew he had worked with Bill Gates at Microsoft. They kept in touch via email when she went to college. In March 2004, he left school. She talked to Balwani about making a business out of her patent application. In 2005, she moved in with him.
An exact date was not put on the beginning of the abuse. She claimed that Balwani told her that she was going to fail if she followed her instincts and that she didn't know what she was doing in business. He said that he needed to kill that person and become a new Elizabeth because he was never going to be a success in life or business.
I will never meet with anyone for more than five minutes.
Balwani told her that if she wanted to be a successful businesswoman, she needed to spend all her time on the business and only spend time with people who would make the business successful. I needed to be in the office seven days a week. She had to spend less time with her family.
The lawyer moved into evidence. She said she recognized the handwriting. It was distinctive around the capital letter I. Every morning I will force myself out of bed and spend 30 minutes writing what I want from my day. I will only spend time on things that are most important to cash flow, and I will never meet with anyone for more than five minutes unless I have written down why.
The document had a page titled "pursuit of success in business." The idea of this page was that some people are naturally successful at business, while others are not. Discipline was the most important thing. The second most important thing was self-discovering through writing.
He was talking about me.
He was trying to teach me how to be better because he was so disappointed in me.
We saw a schedule for herself that appeared to be hotel stationery for a hotel in Singapore called Raffles. The first thing on her schedule was to thank God. She was to wish for change from 4 to 4:30. She had tofu with tabbouleh and a green drink. The notes to herself that were below the schedule were from Balwani, who said, "I do everything I say, word for word, and I show no excitement... calm, direct, pointed."
When she didn't do what Balwani wanted, he would get very angry with her and would yell at her, because he was so disappointed in her.
Balwani took credit when she was successful.
The document she created on her phone was shown to the jury by the defense. I do not have faith. I was angry at myself for coming. I spent 5 years of my life angry. It was the biggest failure of my life. It was a regret coming. I stayed because I love you. The quality of this company is mediocre.
The abuse was not just emotional. She said Balwani would force her to have sex with him even if she didn't want to. She wrote another document on her phone after one of the incidents, and she didn't want anyone to know who she was. Hurts a lot. So much. Can't focus on anything except why. Why is it that I hurt myself? Can't even move, can't even sit up. Lying on the floor. It was literally.
I don't fully understand how he impacted everything about who I was.
The report from the lab inspection was what broke Balwani's spell. I thought we had one of the best labs in the world. The report she got in 2016 said that the operations of Theranos posed immediate jeopardy to patient safety. After that, she hired lab directors that reported to her, and got outside advisers.
Balwani left the company in May 2016 and she didn't continue her relationship with him after that. He was on a business trip in Thailand when she and her brother moved her things out of his house.
She said that Balwani did not tell her what to say. When Kevin Downey asked how Balwani had affected her work at Theranos, she replied, "I don't know." I don't fully understand how he impacted who I was.
The testimony seems to be about the state of mind of the person. The wire fraud charges have to be proven that he was lying. If she believed she was telling the truth, the case falls apart.
Balwani's lawyers told the lawyers that he would plead the Fifth in this case, so they tried to get sections of a prior deposition admitted as evidence. The prosecution argued that his statements from the deposition are not valid because of a motive of love.
In May 2016 she said to Balwani, "I adore you." Attached to the prosecution's motion were texts from her. In June of 2016 after she moved out of their house, Balwani sent her a text saying, "I know what you are thinking and going to." In every hour, be conscious of your breath and breath. The person replied, "I love this." The government says this is proof that their relationship continued after Balwani left Theranos.
She gave testimony today and will have to explain how those texts fit. She told the Securities and Exchange Commission about that. She said that the relationship had ended before Balwani left Theranos. She said that she was the company's ultimate decision maker.
The prosecution will ask her about it tomorrow, just as they did the day before.
