A company accused of handing out fake results for hundreds of coronavirus tests will pay more than $20 million under a settlement deal announced by Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer.
Feuer and Dist. Atty. George Gascón accused Sameday Technologies and its chief executive, Felix Huettenbach, of sending fake results to hundreds of people, telling them they had tested negative for the coronavirus when laboratories had not actually run their tests. Some tests were never processed at all, according to the complaint filed in court Wednesday.
More than 500 test results are “confirmed or suspected to be faked, falsified, or forged,” the attorneys wrote. In their complaints, they alleged Sameday would forge a negative result — at the direction of its CEO — when someone who had not gotten their result in time complained or threatened to report the company.
Sameday said in a statement that it was founded in September 2020 “to make fast, reliable COVID testing available to everyone.”
“In the early days, amidst the chaos of massive surges in demand for services, and shortages in supplies, we failed to meet the standards for excellence our customers deserve,” the company said. “We have corrected the problems that arose back in 2020 and have made significant investments in compliance and systems to ensure that we meet our customers’ expectations.”
In the settlement agreement being proposed to the court, the company agreed to pay $22.5 million, including more than $9.6 million in...
A front-page article with the byline of veteran New York Times opinion writer Nicholas Kristof is the latest poisonous example of what I call the NGO “halo effect.” Headlined “The Silence That Mee...