That is a bold-faced lie, and almost nothing could be further from the truth.
The employee's name was Brian Kinnerk. He was hired on January 1, 2014 by ARYC as a full-time employee. His title was Vice-President of Operations. He wasn't someone low on the totem pole. He was a Vice President. As one of his duties, he was put in charge of the ARYC Food Safety Test. Between January 1, 2014 and January 23, 2016 he was exclusively and continuously a full-time employee (doc 182-3). ARYC stopped paying Mr. Kinnerk his salary. On October 5, 2015, Mr. Kinnerk started a wage dispute proceeding against ARYC before the State of California Department of Labor (State Case #12-97862 FD)(doc 168-1). On August 22, 2016, as a result of the California Labor Proceeding, a judgment was entered in favor of Mr. Kinnerk and against ARYC (doc 168-1).
Here is a quote from the testimony by Mr. Kinnerk:
"I believe that the motive behind the Defendant's [ARYC] unsubstantiated claim ... is simply to delay, mislead & obfuscate this process for as long as possible to avoid having to pay me what is owed in the hope that I eventually just walk away. This has been Arrayit's modus operandi in past back-pay claims against this company. A cursory check of Arrayit's history of owing their employees for back wages is well-documented, as exemplified by the findings of a recent investigation by the Department of Labor." (doc 182-3)
So as you can see, this was not the first time that employees were stiffed by ARYC (and it probably won't be the last). So ARYC cheats their own employees, their partners, their lenders, their customers, and their shareholders.
In addition, ARYC's "modus operandi" to "delay, mislead & obfuscate this process for as long as possible" is exactly what is happening in regards to their fins.