According to Business Insider, Balwani met Holmes while on a trip to Beijing as part of Stanford University's Mandarin program. The two allegedly started a romantic relationship after Holmes dropped out and in the workings of launching Theranos.
Before Theranos, Balwani helped create the software development company CommerceBid, which was eventually bought out by Commerce One, a deal that saw Balwani walk away from the company around the year 2000 as a multimillionaire.
He joined Theranos in 2009 and soon became president and chief operating officer of the company. He was known as Holmes's "enforcer."
Along with Holmes, Balwani was charged with massive fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission, including nine charges of fraud and two charges of conspiracy fraud, as reported by The Sun.
