The Justice Department said late Friday that a major federal jury has charged the California chief executive for holding out a scheme to deceive investors with false claims about the COVID-19 test. That resulted in millions of dollars in investor losses, the DOJ said. Keith Berman, 67, President of Decision Diagnostics Inc. DECN,
one count of fraudulent securities and one count of making false statements was charged, the DOJ said. The conviction alleges that, from February through December 2020, Berman falsely claimed that Decision Diagnostics had developed a 15-second test to detect COVID-19 using fingerprint blood value. Berman reportedly knew that the test was “only an idea and not a test method for detecting COVID-19 for sure, much less a very ready-made product for manufacture and sale,” the DOJ said. According to the sentence, Berman wanted to dig up his company’s finances and falsely told investors that the Food and Drug Administration was about to seek the company’s approval for emergency use for the trial. Diagnosticswas also decided on secure controllers radar in May.