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**SunsetBengal** · 07-10-2023, 08:03 AM

Sometimes people aren't nearly as clever as they think they are.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/commodities-trader-caught-in-doj-probe-ruined-her-own-non-prosecution-agreement-by-taunting-the-former-colleagues-she-was-helping-to-investigate/ar-AA1dCxrU?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=e8476109f3c845748121a66d1d4c3892&ei=17

Quote:Commodities trader caught in DOJ probe ruined her own non-prosecution agreement by taunting the former colleagues she was helping to investigate
Story by ktangalakislippert@insider.com (Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert) • Yesterday 1:04 AM

Provided by Business Insider
Charlotte Bamber admitted to wire fraud and price manipulation while working as a commodities trader.
She entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the DOJ in exchange for cooperating with a probe.
A court filing shows Bamber ruined the agreement by harassing colleagues she was helping investigate.

The one-time star founder was found guilty on three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy last January after a four-month trial. She was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison, with three years of supervised release. Holmes reported to prison in Texas in late May.

Meanwhile, Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, her ex-boyfriend and Theranos' former president and COO, was also been convicted of fraud and handed a prison sentence. In July, a jury found him guilty on all 12 counts of fraud and conspiracy that were brought against him. He was sentenced to just under 13 years in prison, with three years of probation.

In April, he reported to a low-security federal prison in California to begin serving his sentence, according to Federal Bureau of Prisons records. This week, a judge ordered that he and Holmes pay $452 million in restitution to victims of their fraud at Theranos, including $125 million to media mogul and Theranos investor Rupert Murdoch.

While Holmes was once lauded as the next Steve Jobs and deemed the world's youngest self-made female billionaire, Balwani has largely remained an enigma. Online information and photos of him predating the DOJ's case are scarce, especially considering his tenure in the tech industry and position as a C-suite executive.

Here's a closer look at what we do know about Balwani's often-mysterious life and career:

A former commodities trader who admitted to wire fraud and price manipulation ruined a non-prosecution agreement she scored after it was revealed she was harassing the former colleagues she was helping to investigate.

Charlotte Bamber, a former trader of oil products at Trafigura Group, entered into the non-prosecution agreement with the DOJ in 2020 in exchange for cooperating with a probe into her former employer.

Under the terms of the agreement, Bamber was not to have contact with her colleagues and would not face jail time if she helped investigators dig into the price manipulation plan she was a part of.

In a June 26 court filing reviewed by Insider, Bamber acknowledged she violated the agreement after the investigators on the case discovered she was sending threatening messages to her former co-workers.

Bamber did not acknowledge she had sent the emails until confronted with the evidence by FBI and DOJ agents. It remains unclear how the agents tracked the emails to Bamber.

"You should probably tell your family what is about to be made public," Bamber wrote to another employee being investigated, using a pseudonymous email account, in November 2021. "Everything you do always catches up with you. Always. You'll get a great roommate, don't worry."

In January of the following year, she wrote another taunting email to a different employee of the firm: "Tick Tock. There's no way out for you. Enjoy balding even further, if that's possible."

Bamber specifically mentioned the investigation and that management planned to throw the former employees "under the bus" for participating in the trading fraud.

"Guess who snitched on the other about C07 payment approvals?" Bamber wrote, copying two colleagues under investigation in the same email thread: "One of you will lose everything."

In a February 2022 interview, according to the filing, Bamber was asked by FBI agents and DOJ Fraud Section attorneys whether she had any contact with other employees of Trafigura Group — and lied about it. She denied having had contact with her former colleagues, violating the non-prosecution agreement, and opening herself up to a sentence of up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Lawyers representing the United States and Bamber did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment. Representatives for Trafigura Group did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Bamber's sentencing hearing, which would have been avoided had she not sent the harassing emails, is set for October 24.