Elizabeth Holmes Plans To Accuse Ex-Boyfriend Of Abuse At Trial : NPR

Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of Theranos, speaks at the Fortune Global Forum in San Francisco.

Jeff Chiu/AP

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Jeff Chiu/AP

Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of Theranos, speaks at the Fortune Global Forum in San Francisco.

Jeff Chiu/AP

Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of blood-testing startup Theranos, plans to defend herself at her federal fraud trial starting next week by arguing that her ex-boyfriend, who was an executive at the company, emotionally and sexually abused her, impairing her state of mind at the time of the alleged crimes, according to newly unsealed legal filings in her case.

In documents released early Saturday, Holmes’ legal strategy was for the first time outlined by lawyers involved in the case: She plans on pinning the blame on Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, her former boyfriend and onetime top Theranos executive who has also been charged in a separate fraud trial set to take place next year.

Holmes is “likely” to take the stand and testify at her trial, according to her attorneys in the submissions to the court.

The bombshell revelations come on the eve of the trial of Holmes, who stands accused of defrauding patients and investors in operating Theranos, a much-hyped company that promised to revolutionize laboratory science and attracted hundreds of millions of dollars of investment only to implode when journalists and government regulators closely examined the firm’s exaggerated claims.

The new court papers, related to legal arguments over whether Balwani should be tried separately or with Holmes, disclose the degree to which Holmes intends on arguing that Balwani allegedly controlled, manipulated and abused Holmes.

According to a filing, Holmes at trial will describe how Balwani controlled how she ate, how she dressed and with whom she spoke.

Holmes intends to say that Balwani monitored her calls, text message and emails and that he was physically violent, throwing “hard, sharp objects” at her.

The filing also indicated that Holmes planned to reveal sexual abuse allegedly perpetuated by Balwani.

“This pattern of abuse and coercive control continued over the approximately decade-long duration of Ms. Holmes and Mr. Balwani’s relationship, including during the period of the charged conspiracies,” wrote lawyers for Elizabeth Holmes in a filing.

Holmes’ lawyers intend to call as a witness a…