U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California imposed the sentence on Palwani, who was convicted by a jury of two counts of conspiracy and 10 counts of fraud in July.
Prosecutors said Palwani, 57, conspired with Holmes, 38, to deceive Silicon Valley investors into believing the company had achieved miniature machines that could accurately perform a wide range of medical tests from a small amount of blood.
Meanwhile, the company secretly relied on traditional testing methods and provided patients with inaccurate results, prosecutors said. Holmes, who started the company as a college student and became its public face, was charged, along with Balwani, her former romantic partner, in 2018.
Davila later grants each a separate trial after Holmes says she will take the stand and testify that Balwani was abusive in their relationship. He has denied all charges.
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Holmes was convicted in January of four counts of fraud and conspiracy, but was acquitted of defrauding patients.
Davila sentenced Holmes to 11-1/4 years in prison at a hearing last month, describing Theranos as a project that “was wrecked by lies, misrepresentation, apparent arrogance and lies.”
Prosecutors later argued that Balwani should receive 15 years in prison, saying he knew Theranos tests were inaccurate from overseeing the company’s laboratory operations, and had decided to “prioritize Theranos’ financial health over real patient health.”
The probation office had recommended a nine-year prison term.
Balwani’s lawyers sought a control sentence, arguing that he sought to make the world a better place through Theranos and was not motivated by fame or greed.
Once valued at $9 billion, Theranos promised to revolutionize how patients receive diagnoses by replacing traditional laboratories with small machines envisioned for use in homes, pharmacies, and even on the battlefield.
The company collapsed after a series of Wall Street Journal articles in 2015 questioned its technology.
