U.S. Department
of Justice
United States v. Mark Schena
PENDING CRIMINAL DIVISION CASES
Arrayit Corporation
United States v. Mark Schena
Court Docket No.: 5:20-CR-00425
Court Assigned: These cases are assigned to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Robert F. Peckham Federal Building & United States Courthouse 280 South 1st Street, Room 2112 San Jose, CA 95113.
Current update: The sentencing hearing for defendant Mark Schena took place on Wednesday, October 18, 2023 before Judge Edward J. Davila. The court sentenced defendant Schena to 96 months in prison and ordered him to pay $24 million in restitution to defrauded investors and insurance companies. You can view the press release for more information here.
Previous events:
On September 1, 2022, a jury found defendant Schena guilty of all counts.
In a superseding indictment filed on May 18, 2021, defendant Schena was charged with new counts of health care fraud, conspiracy to pay kickbacks and payment of kickbacks in connection with false and fraudulent statements about the existence, regulatory status and accuracy of an Arrayit COVID-19 test. The conspiracy allegedly sought to induce the ordering of the Arrayit COVID-19 test and to bundle, i.e., require combination with, the COVID-19 test and Arrayit’s medically unnecessary allergy test. The COVID-19 test results were not provided in a timely fashion and were not reliable in detecting COVID-19.
Criminal Charges: The president of a California-based medical technology company was charged in an indictment filed in the Northern District of California, in connection with his alleged participation in schemes to mislead investors and commit health care fraud in connection with the submission of over $69 million in false and fraudulent claims for allergy and COVID-19 testing.
The charges against Mark Schena, 57, the president of Arrayit Corporation, is the first criminal securities fraud prosecution related to the COVID-19 pandemic that has been brought by the Department of Justice and charges three counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. According to the affidavit in support of a criminal complaint issued in June 2020, Schena touted that Arrayit is the “only laboratory in the world that offers” revolutionary “microarray technology” that allows Arrayit to test for allergy and COVID-19 based on a finger-prick drop of blood that is placed on a paper card and sent by mail to Arrayit’s laboratory. In the first phase of the scheme, beginning in or around 2018 and continuing to in or around February 2020, Schena and others paid kickbacks and bribes to recruiters and doctors to run an allergy screening test for 120 allergens (including things ranging from stinging insects to food allergens) on every patient regardless of medical necessity, and then made numerous misrepresentations to potential investors about Arrayit’s allergy test sales, financial condition, and its future prospects. In the second phase of the scheme, beginning in or around February 2020, Schena and others made false claims concerning Arrayit’s ability to provide accurate, fast, reliable, and cheap COVID-19 tests in compliance with state and federal regulations, and made numerous misrepresentations to potential investors about the COVID-19 tests and Arrayit’s future prospects for COVID-19 testing.
For more information about the charges in this case, please see below:
Superseding Indictment – May 18, 2021
Victim Impact Statement: If you would like to submit a Victim Impact Statement, you may do so by mailing the Victim Impact Statement below (or a letter to the court) to: Victim Witness Unit, U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Fraud Section, 10th & Constitution Avenue, NW, Bond Building, Room 4416, Washington, DC 20530. You also may submit the Victim Impact Statement via email at Victimassistance.fraud@usdoj.gov or by fax at: (202) 514-3708. Please note that during the Department’s period of telework in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, responses to faxes may be significantly delayed.
The information on this website will be updated as new developments arise in the case. If you have any questions, please call the Victim Assistance Line toll-free at (888) 549-3945 or email us at VictimAssistance.fraud@usdoj.gov.
Victim Rights and Contacts: If you believe you are a victim who has invested in Arrayit, or you have taken a COVID-19 test prepared or marketed by Arrayit, please contact: The Fraud Section’s Victim Witness Unit toll-free at (888) 549-3945 or email us at victimassistance.fraud@usdoj.gov.
The information on this website will be updated as new developments arise in the case. If you have any questions, please call the Victim Assistance Line toll-free at (888) 549-3945 or email us at victimassistance.fraud@usdoj.gov. Please note: As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic response, the most reliable method of contacting victim-witness staff is via e-mail. If you need to speak to someone over the phone, let victim-witness staff know in your e-mail, and someone will call you as soon as practicable.
Presumption of Innocence: It is important to keep in mind that a criminal complaint is merely an allegation, and defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty and that presumption requires both the court and our office to take certain steps to ensure that justice is served.
Crime Victims’ Rights Act and Right to Retain Counsel: The Crime Victims’ Rights Act (18 U.S.C. § 3771) applies only to victims of the counts charged in federal court, and thus individuals may not be able to exercise all of these rights if the crime of which the individual is a victim was not charged. Section 3771(c)(2) of this Act requires that we advise you that you have the right to retain counsel. Although the statute specifically sets forth your right to seek advice of an attorney with regard to your rights under the statute, there is no requirement that you retain counsel. The Government may not recommend any specific counsel, nor can the Government (or the Court) pay for counsel to represent you. Government attorneys represent the United States.
If you elect to obtain counsel to represent your interests, please have your attorney notify this office in writing at: U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Fraud Section, 10th & Constitution Avenue, NW, Bond Building, 4th Floor, Washington, DC 20530, Attention: Victim Witness Unit; fax: (202) 514-3708; or email: victimassistance.fraud@usdoj.gov. If you elect not to retain counsel to represent your interests, you do not need to do anything.
Plea Agreements: Please be aware that many criminal cases are resolved by plea agreement between the Department of Justice and the defendant. You should also know that it is not unusual for a defendant to seek to negotiate a plea agreement shortly before trial is scheduled to begin. Plea agreements can be made at any time and as late as the morning of trial, leaving little or no opportunity to provide notice to you of the date and time of the plea hearing. If the court schedules a plea hearing in this case, we will use our best efforts to notify you of available information as soon as practicable. If you want to inform the prosecutor of your views regarding potential plea agreements, or any other aspect of the case, please contact the prosecutor assigned to this case or call the Victim Assistance Line toll-free at (888) 549-3945 or email us at victimassistance.fraud@usdoj.gov.