California tech CEO convicted in COVID-19 and allergy test fraud case sentenced to 8 years in prison

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A Silicon Valley executive who lied to investors about inventing technology that tested for allergies and COVID-19 using only a few drops of blood has sentenced to eight years in prison and ordered to pay $24 million in restitution. Mark Schena was sentenced Wednesday. He was convicted last year of paying bribes to doctors and defrauding the government. Federal prosecutors say Schena claimed his company, Arrayit Corporation, had the only laboratory in the world that offered “revolutionary microarray technology” that allowed it to test for allergies and COVID-19 with the same finger-stick test kit. Prosecutors say Schena told investors he was on the shortlist for the Nobel Prize.