Yahoo Finance legal correspondent Alexis Keenan outlines the guilty verdict former Theranos President and COO Sunny Balwani received on various counts of fraud.

Video Transcript

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DAVE BRIGGS: Some breaking news now, the verdict in the trial of Sunny Balwani, the former COO of Theranos is in. Alexis Keenan here with the latest on the ruling. Hi there, what did we hear?

ALEXIS KEENAN: Hi. Really a stunning verdict here, and quite a departure from the verdict that was reached by the jury that tried Elizabeth Holmes. So we're just getting this news in, this is the jury trial, the 45-day trial of Sunny Balwani, and he was the right-hand man of Elizabeth Holmes, who was the founder of the blood-testing company in Silicon Valley called Theranos. Obviously, Holmes had a lot of press surrounding her trial, Balwani's trial a little bit less here, but Balwani served as the President and COO of the company, and he joined about six years after Holmes started the company.

Now, let's go through what this verdict says and the jury's decision here, and why it's so significant is that this verdict is much harsher than the verdict that was reached by Holmes' jury back in January. So there were 12 counts that were charged against Balwani, seven counts of wire fraud against investors, the jury has said guilty on all of those charges. Two counts of wire fraud against patients, guilty on those two charges as well. Two more counts of conspiracy against investors and patients, guilty. And one count of wire fraud for advertisements that the company ran in Arizona to attract patients. So in all, there are 12 counts that were charged by federal prosecutors, and Balwani here guilty on every single one of those.

Now, if we compare that to the charges and the verdict that was reached for Elizabeth Holmes, she was found guilty on four counts of defrauding investors, acquitted on four counts of defrauding patients, so not finding any fraud against patients there. And she was-- there was no verdict on three of those counts. So just such a surprise here. And it's got to be a really bitter, bitter pill to swallow here for Balwani seeing charges coming down that are much stricter. Each of these fraud charges carry $250,000 in penalties and 20 years in prison. The two conspiracy charges with five years each. We are, of course, expecting an appeal.

DAVE BRIGGS: Wow, so he's going away for quite some time in all likelihood?

ALEXIS KEENAN: Even with an appeal I would think so.

DAVE BRIGGS: Remarkable. Alexis Keenan, thanks so much with that breaking news.