I have observed a number of these business partnership prosecutions, where two persons face the same set of charges, yet there are very different outcomes in terms of conviction/acquittal rate, based on how likeable the defendant was. Same jury, same prosecution, and serial juries, serial prosecutions. Sometimes in a hyper technical area (complex financial frauds, patent battles, etc.) the jury throws in the towel on weighing the facts and makes a decision based heavily on how much they like or dislike the defendants. Should not be that way, but it is...
I had a neighbor in Boca who, along with his business partner, was prosecuted by the SEC for a massive investment Ponzi scheme. This guy was slick, but not enough to persuade a jury. They were charged with 27 counts, and my neighbor was convicted on all counts, and his more likeable business partner on 23. My neighbor got 15 years and his partner 12. Each served about half their sentence before being released due to Covid risk. Now that they are out (in their mid-late 70’s), they can start working on paying off the $99.5M in restitution (not!)
I followed the SEC trial closely and the business partners were both involved intimately in all aspects of the business. So, the charges should be applied identically against the two. When the judge sentenced the two, on separate dates, he took the time to really ream out my neighbor for his arrogance. That was the person I knew.
I have followed the Holmes/Balwani/Theranos story closely as well, and she is proving to be the total chameleon. She knew how to present herself as the tech savant who was too advanced to waste her time getting a degree at Stanford, too far ahead of the rest of us mere mortals to be questioned. And she fooled investors out of ~$910M. Once it was time to be a defendant, she played that well, and the difference in results proves she is very good at that game.