Arrayit to have replaced things.
Five years ago, an auditor at Sunnyvale Medical Technology told investors he needed money and might not get it. But by the end of 2018, the company had completed a pilot allergy testing program with a retail chain and had signed contracts with 178 medical clinics.
The coronavirus pandemic gave the impression of being a new opportunity for Arrayit’s blood analysis technology. President Mark Schena reportedly compared the addition of virus verification to a pastry chef who went from making “strawberry cakes” to “rhubarb and strawberry cakes.”
Instead, Schena discovered that he and his company were a matter of control for law enforcement, as the Department of Justice continued its first securities fraud process in connection with the physical fitness crisis. Schena was placed in federal custody in June.
Government accusations, along with other court documents and corporate communications reviewed through The Chronicle, show a profit-intensive company that is willing to sue for evidence even after appearing on fraud charges.
In the government edition of events, Schena deceived investors and inflated the company’s percentage value with false statements about the company’s allergy detection and coronavirus capabilities.
He allegedly bribed doctors and others to unnecessarily consolidate evidence and generate fraudulent bills for the federal Medicare program and companies.
Prosecutors say Schena and others have filed $69 million in fraudulent fees for allergy and coronavirus tests, $5.9 million in claims filed with Medicare.
The company responded to emailed comment requests and corporate executives, adding that Schena, can be contacted for comment.
Fees are not the company’s first contact with the courts. In February, the National Autonomous University of Mexico sued Arrayit in federal court, accusing him of betting a game of shell with studio apparatus for which the university said he had paid tens of thousands of dollars but had never received, claiming that the company had never yet sold it elsewhere and took the money.
The company has denied the allegations contained in the court documents filed on behalf of Mark Schena and his wife, René Schena, who is the ceo of Arrayit. Schenas said the university had canceled a team order worth more than $126,000. This case is ongoing.
The company’s efforts to obtain coronavirus bills and allergy tests are therefore similar to those described in the federal criminal complaint.
After the criminals’ fees were set in June, Rene Schena asked Wendy Woodward of Snowflake, Arizona, to pay the remarkable balance of a coronavirus and allergy check administered through a company but treated through Arrayit.
Woodward went to a local site in Arizona in May to get an antibody check against the coronavirus that was intended to be loose through her husband’s employer, a local school district.
He said in particular he asked to do an allergy check on a blood pattern he had provided, after feeling that the two checks should be done together.
She won a call informing him that he had anti-coronavirus antibodies and won a separate report on his allergies.
On July 20, he won a “liquidation offer” from René Schena asking $869.09 to pay the covered balance through his insurance, which he had billed thousands of dollars.
Woodward emailed René Schena to tell him he wouldn’t pay for the evidence.
Schena tried to keep his company out of the process.
“Arrayit Corporation has announced something. Arrayit Corporation qualified for the verification of anti-SRAS-CoV-2 antibodies,” rené Schena wrote, referring to the virus through its clinical name.
Schena continued: “We don’t see any patients. We test and provide data to doctors. Medical need of doctors. Your tests were ordered through a doctor, we reported the effects to the doctor and billed your insurance for the facilities provided.”
Schena responded to the accusations against her husband.
He said it’s general for patients to pay deductibles and co-pays for lab services, adding, “We don’t (we have) any goal of seeking a hard recovery of the amount owed.”
The company that administered the test, Advanced Health – Wellness AZ, told Woodward in an email that only insurance intended to charge for testing and that “billing the balance” of patients was not intended to occur.
The company declined to comment on anyone.
Advanced Health and Wellness AZ told Woodward that allergy tests are done in conjunction with coronavirus tests to rule out allergies as a cause of viral symptoms.
“From a medical point of view, the explanation for why we think allergy controls are smart with a COVID check is that there would possibly be similar symptoms (which) happen with allergies that cause other people to have COVID-19,” the company told Woodward. “(It’s) medically advantageous to exclude this,” he added. “Once again, we don’t tolerate what (Arrayit) did.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco declined to comment on an ongoing case. The federal government has been in talks with Woodward since his investigation.
An initial hearing in the case is scheduled for one month.
Chase DiFeliciantonio is editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @ChaseDiFelice
Chase DiFeliciantonio is an economic reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, where he covers generational culture and pictorial problems in San Francisco, Silicon Valley and beyond. Prior to joining The Chronicle, he covered immigration issues for the Daily Journal, a legal business journal and a series of beats in the North Bay Business Journal in Santa Rosa. Chase holds degrees in journalism and history from Loyola University in Chicago.