DD Support Board and Research Team

[nodummy]

This ARYC fraud was massive.

I can see Schena getting 10 - 15 years in prison.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/medical-technology-company-president-charged-scheme-defraud-investors-and-health-care

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/press-release/file/1283956/download

Mark Schena, the president of Arrayit Corporation, was charged with one count of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud after authorities said his company billed Medicare $69 million for coronavirus and unnecessary allergy tests.

From 2018 to February 2020, Schena and other employees paid bribes to recruiters and doctors to run an allergy screening test for 120 allergens ranging from stinging insects to food allergens on every patient, authorities said.

He also is accused of publishing false claims on social media and in company emails to investors about Arrayit's ability to provide accurate, fast, and cheap coronavirus tests in compliance with state and federal regulations.

On or about November 19, 2018, Arrayit released a press release stating that pursuant to “an allergy testing agreement,” Arrayit “is providing its proprietary microarray-based finger stick allergy testing services to Sutter Health via doctors in the Sutter Health-affiliated Palo Alta Medical Foundation,” Sutter Health, “one of the nation’s largest healthcare networks,” reports “total patient service revenues of $12,000,000,000 annually.”

The investigative team has learned that Arrayit had no contractual relationship with Sutter Health or with Palo Alto Medical Foundation, a non-profit member of the Sutter Health Network. When the Palo Alto Medical Foundation became aware of Arrayit’s press release, legal counsel for Sutter Health sent a cease-and-desist letter to Arrayit. In response to the cease and desist letter, Executive #1 responded to Sutter by email and agreed to cease and desist using the name of Sutter Health or Palo Alto Medical Foundation in any press releases, or postings on Twitter or other social media platforms under Arrayit’s control. SCHENA never clarified the original press release or took it down.

On or about August 8, 2019, SCHENA posted from the Arrayit Twitter account that “Arrayit clinical team commences $240,000,000 test kit manufacturing run to build inventory for our rapidly expanding physician-ordered finger stick allergy testing services empowering clinic network doctors to identify, manage and treat allergy and asthma.” This tweet was subsequently repeated elsewhere, including on social media and IHub

SCHENA’s August 8, 2019 tweet suggested that Arrayit had substantial means and demand for its allergy testing product, such that it could justify hundreds of millions of dollars in production. There is no evidence that this statement is true; in fact, at the time of this statement, Arrayit was broke, and SCHENA was soliciting investors to help Arrayit cover its rent. Arrayit never corrected this statement.

SCHENA’s tweet was not the first time that SCHENA had posted false or misleading information about Arrayit’s manufacturing and production capabilities. On or about May 8, 2019, SCHENA posted that “Arrayit microarray manufacturing team completes $27.9 million production run to build allergy testing services inventory for our rapidly expanded network of 700 healthcare clinics using our physician-ordered allergy and asthma tests for patient wellness.” There is no evidence of such a production run, and Arrayit’s revenues do not approach the number mentioned in either tweet.

The investigation has revealed that SCHENA used the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to expand the pre-existing allergy test scheme and to capitalize on a national emergency for his own financial gain. As described below, SCHENA offered an Arrayit COVID-19 test in order to obtain Medicare beneficiary information that then was used to submit false and fraudulent claims for an unrelated and far more expensive allergy test for 120 allergens. SCHENA and others transmitted false and fraudulent email communications and marketing materials about the Arrayit COVID-19 test and purported need to bundle the COVID-19 test with Arrayit’s allergy test, while never disclosing that there were substantial questions about the accuracy of Arrayit’s COVID-19 test.


Arrayit never disclosed that the Food and Drug Administration informed it on April 17 that its COVID-19 test was not at an acceptable level of performance.

The company also claimed partnerships with Fortune 500 companies, government agencies and public institutions, without disclosing they were either trivial or did not exist.


This is interesting too - they already got a guilty plea from a conspiring doctor who is cooperating in the case:

Physician #1 is a medical doctor who is licensed in the State of California and a participating provider with Medicare. Physician #1 has proffered with the government pursuant to a Kastigar agreement and has signed an agreement to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1349.

Physician #1 stated that s/he conspired to commit health care fraud with SCHENA and others. Physician #1 stated it is not medically necessary to test every patient for 120 allergens using the Arrayit test. Physician #1 stated that SCHENA requested the NPI number of Physician #1 and that Physician #1 later discovered that Arrayit submitted claims to Medicare and private insurance plans using Physician #1’s NPI to represent that Physician #1 had ordered allergy testing for patients whom Physician #1 had never seen. Many of these patients were located outside of the State of California and never received treatment from Physician #1. Physician #1 stated that an executive of Arrayit (Executive #1) paid Physician #1 illegal kickbacks in the form of insurance reimbursement checks in exchange for Arrayit’s ordering of allergy testing for patients whom Physician #1 had never seen. In addition, Physician #1 stated that SCHENA and others submitted false and fraudulent documentation to regulatory bodies in order to obtain regulatory approval to allow Arrayit to conduct laboratory testing.


Thanks to luckydog for this news article that included an interview with Schena:

https://abc7news.com/coronavirus-testing-near-me-testme2-test-too/6240011/