Text messages have been revealed between Elizabeth Holmes, the unfortunate founder of the blood testing startup Theranos, and her ex-boyfriend and former business partner, after the alleged scammer accused her of psychological abuse.
“You’re a desert breeze for me,” she read a message to her boyfriend and Theranos COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani in May 2015.
“My water. And Ocean ”, the texts continued.
Prosecutors posted text messages during their trial Tuesday.
Other passionate texts said, “Crazy in love with you and your strength” and “Feel like the luckiest person in the world BC I have you.”
The exchanges took place just as Holmes was facing questions from the Wall Street Journal, which was preparing an explosive story alleging that Theranos was exaggerating the capabilities of his technology.
Prosecutors posted the text messages as they prepared initial statements for the Holmes fraud trial, which began Wednesday.
In her initial statement, Holmes’ defense team painted her as an innocent businesswoman whose business failed and they reminded the jury that she did not run Theranos alone.
In unsealed files last week, Holmes’ lawyers claimed he suffered a “ten-year psychological abuse campaign” from Balwani’s hand, which prepared Holmes to accuse him of planning the fraud. when positioned.
Holmes’ lawyers said in the files that Balwani “controlled what [Holmes] she ate, how she dressed and how much money she could spend, with whom she could interact, essentially dominating her and erasing her ability to make decisions. “
Lawyers added that he also restricted Holmes’ sleep, monitored his movements and insisted “any success he achieved was due to him”.
The relationship was an “abuse of the intimate couple,” the lawyers wrote, adding that “Holmes is likely to state to herself the reasons why she believed, trusted and deferred to Mr. Balwani.”