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Bloomberg
Startup was selling DNA kits to test poop. Prosecutors say it is a scam
(Bloomberg) – The founders of medical testing company uBiome Inc. have been criminally charged with $ 60 million fraud in an alleged system that reads like a smaller, more nondescript version of the spectacular breakdown of Theranos Inc. and patients who Wanted to analyze the DNA of their own microbiomes from stool samples, uBiome filed for bankruptcy in September 2019, about four months after the FBI began investing its billing practices. The creditors included the well-known venture capital firms 8VC and Andreessen Horowitz. Former managing directors Jessica Richman, 46, and Zachary Apte, 36, are facing charges of securities fraud and healthcare fraud that could jail them for 20 years, along with a US Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit. The cases reflect the pending criminal charges against Theranos Inc. founder Elizabeth Holmes and her former friend and former Theranos President Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani. There is one important difference: while Holmes and Balwani are on trial to defend themselves. Prosecutors say Richman and Apte are refugees. “The defendants’ first appearances in federal courts are not yet planned,” said the US law firm in San Francisco in a statement on Thursday. Like Holmes and Balwani, Richman and Apte worked closely together and were romantically involved – which led them to get married in 2019, according to the SEC. In another parallel, both sets of defendants are cited in light of the fact that companies were able to conduct reliable medical tests on their companies when prosecutors said they could not. Ultimately, however, the alleged fraud at Theranos was far greater: the Richman and Apte startup was valued at $ 600 million in a series The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Elizabeth Holmes and TheranosRichman and Apte painted the wrong picture of uBiome as a fast-growing company with a strong track record of reliable revenue from health insurance reimbursements for its tests, “the SEC said in its complaint. “However, uBiome’s alleged success in generating income was a sham.” Initially, uBiome’s Gut Explorer test was offered to perform genetic sequencing on stool samples and marketed for a better understanding of what goes on in the gut received after the indictment. By 2014, Richman and Apte concluded that the company was not generating enough revenue to attract venture capital investors, so the government said they turned to marketing clinical tests used to make medical decisions. Ubiome filed health insurance claims for its tests, which were ultimately marketed as “SmartGut” for private insurers that insure Medicare beneficiaries as well as employer-sponsored private sector health insurance plans under the indictment. Among other practices, Richman and Apte deceived health care providers and insurers by filing fraudulent reimbursement claims for reimbursement, according to prosecutors, the state founders relied on the 2015-2019 system by relying on a “proprietary network” of health care providers that they partially and gave misleading information and tampered with the service data to hide uBiome’s actual testing and marketing practices selling uBiome stock and debt to pay for operations and get rich, prosecutors said. The indictment describes a series of rounds of investment in various undisclosed funds. Read more: uBiome Estate donates 40,000 Covid-19 test kits to San Francisco-based 8VC and Menlo Park, California-based Andreessen Horowitz hold 22% and 10% court documents show 8VC has an early donation round of $ 17 million headed and participated with 10 other investment firms in a later $ 83 million round, while Andreessen Horowitz participated in another $ 4.5 million early stage, according to market data provider PitchBook. Y Combinator, based in Mountain View, California, and Dentsu Ventures, based in Tokyo, are among the uBiome investors listed by PitchBook. “We are grateful to the authorities and will continue to work with them fully,” said a statement from 8VC. “We cannot comment on an ongoing case.” Y Combinator declined to comment, while Andreessen Horowitz and Dentsu Ventures did not respond to requests for comment. Richman and Apte did not tell investors that insurers had questions about uBiome’s billing practices “challenged the company’s entire business model,” but the founders had to “forge documents and lie to insurers to keep them in check,” according to the company Indictment. Richman and Apte could not be found for comment. The spokesmen for the US law firm and the FBI office in San Francisco did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The criminal case is US v Apte, 21-cr-0116, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco) (An earlier version of this story corrected 8VC and Andreessen Horowitz’s participation in fundraising.) For more articles like this, see bloomberg.com. Sign up now to stay up to date with the most trusted business news source. © 2021 Bloomberg LP
Bitcoin Price – China reports four new COVID-19 cases up from eleven the previous day
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