A federal jury has convicted the president of a medtech company for fraudulently billing for more than $77 million in COVID-19 and allergy tests, the Justice Department said Sept. 2.
Mark Schena, 59, of Los Altos, Calif., had claimed to invent a revolutionary technology that could test for virtually any disease via only a few drops of blood, according to the news release.
Mr. Schena, the president of Arrayit Corp, was convicted of submitting fraudulent claims to Medicare and private insurance for medically unnecessary allergy tests that didn't actually diagnose allergies and paying illegal kickbacks to marketers to obtain patient blood specimens. He reportedly billed some commercial insurers more than $10,000 a test, and falsely claimed he was on the Nobel Prize shortlist.
He later claimed to have a COVID-19 test that was more accurate than a PCR test while not telling investors or patients that the FDA had informed him it was not accurate enough to get an emergency use authorization, the news release said.
Mr. Schena was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of healthcare fraud, one count of conspiracy to pay kickbacks, two counts of payment of kickbacks, and three counts of securities fraud. He is set to be sentenced Jan. 30 and faces a maximum penalty of several decades in prison.