Prosecutors across the country are trying to crack down on fraud related to the coronavirus. And today, authorities in Los Angeles announced a lawsuit against the company Wellness Matrix Group for, quote,"shocking deceptive conduct." The company allegedly sold tests that were not FDA approved and falsely claimed that they had a disinfectant that could keep places virus-free for a full 28 days. Here is LA City Attorney Mike Feuer.
CHANG: Well, this company first came to the attention of law enforcement through reporting by the NPR podcast Embedded. And NPR investigative reporter Tom Dreisbach joins us now to talk about it.CHANG: All right. So take us back. Where did this story start? I talked to several customers who say they bought the tests 'cause they were worried about getting sick themselves or getting relatives sick. One person I talked to bought the test 'cause he was just trying to safely visit his mother, who has Alzheimer's and is on hospice care. But all these customers say the tests never arrived, and they really felt like they had been scammed.DREISBACH: Well, because of our reporting, the LA city attorney began investigating.
DREISBACH: Well, the city attorney, after their investigation for more than a month and a half now, they're alleging a, quote,"sophisticated and wide-ranging" fraudulent scheme by the company, involving multiple websites that they set up over time. The lawsuit says the company even created a fake scientific study to make it look like their disinfectant was legit. But that study, they say in the lawsuit, was a total fiction.