The fate of Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani is now in the hands of a dozen jurors after a federal judge on Friday handed them the criminal-fraud case with instructions to decide whether the former Theranos Inc. president deceived investors and patients in a high-profile Silicon Valley saga.
The conclusion of testimony and arguments in the white-collar case follows a marathon four days of closing arguments. Mr. Balwani’s defense spent more than 11 hours making its case to the jury that Mr. Balwani, who was the longtime chief operating officer of the defunct blood-testing startup Theranos, acted in good faith and was honest in his dealings, that Theranos technology showed promise and that the government’s witnesses were unreliable or dishonest.