Ramesh Balwani, the former chief operating officer of the failed blood testing start-up Theranos, was sentenced on Wednesday to nearly 13 years in prison for defrauding investors and patients about the company’s business and technology.Mr. Balwani, 58, and his convicted co-conspirator, Elizabeth Holmes, 38, the founder of Theranos, had promised that the start-up would revolutionize health care with machines and tests that could detect some illnesses using just a few drops of blood. But those claims were false, and Theranos became a tale of Silicon Valley’s ambition and hype run amok.Mr. Balwani, also known as Sunny, was convicted in July of 10 counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.Judge Edward J. Davila of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California sentenced Mr. Balwani to 155 months, which is 12 years and 11 months, as well as three years of supervised release. Mr. Balwani must surrender to custody on March 15.His sentence was longer than that of Ms. Holmes, who was …
