With information from Bay City News.
Multiple Bay Area residents have been convicted in federal court of COVID-19-related fraud, largely among those who wrongly claimed they could treat an infection resulting from the SARS-CoV-2 virus or effectively test for it.
Earlier this month, a federal jury convicted Mark Schena, president of a Sunnyvale-based allergy and COVID testing company, of participating in a scheme to defraud investors.
Schena claimed his company could detect diseases with a few drops of blood and told investors the company was valued at $4.5 billion when in fact it was on the verge of bankruptcy.
Federal prosecutors also obtained a guilty plea in April from a Napa woman who allegedly sold fake COVID immunization pills and allegedly forged vaccination cards from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The woman is set to be sentenced in November on one count of wire fraud and one count of making false statements about health care.
Federal prosecutors on the COVID-19 Fraud Task Force, which was formed in May 2021, have also investigated allegations of fraud related to the Paycheck Protection Program, pandemic-related unemployment insurance, and other health care fraud.
Additionally, the U.S. Department of Justice has launched a trio of strike force groups tasked with expanding the department’s ongoing fraud prevention efforts related to COVID-19.
The U.S. Attorney's Offices in Sacramento and Los Angeles will collaborate as one team, while strike force teams will also operate out of the U.S. Attorney's Offices in the Southern District of Florida and the District of Maryland.
“The work done by our prosecutors, trial attorneys, agents, and partners on our COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force has been extraordinary,” said Assistant Attorney General Kevin Chambers, the Justice Department’s director of COVID-19 fraud enforcement.
"We're going one step further… with the announcement of strike force teams to support, enhance and continue the great work being done across the department," he added.
“Since the beginning of this pandemic, the Department of Justice has seized more than $1.2 billion in relief funds that criminals were attempting to steal and charged more than 1,500 defendants with crimes in federal districts across the country, but our work is far from over,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland. “The department will continue to work tirelessly to combat pandemic fraud and hold those who perpetrate it accountable.”
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