Two former employees of AMA Laboratories Inc. have pleaded guilty to rigging results at the Rockland County consumer products testing business.
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman charged David Winne, the former lab technical director, and Mayya Tatsene, a supervisor, with conspiracy and wire fraud.
Gabriel J. Letizia, sole shareholder of the New City lab, said in a July 31 press release that Winne formed two new companies after he posted bail and hired former AMA staff who had helped him defraud the company.
“To add to this folly,” the press release states, “their advertising byline reads “Ethical Testing”!!! Chutzpah, huh?”
Winne and Tatsene ran human clinical trials with fewer panelists than specified by the lab”™s clients, according to the criminal complaint, and then made false and misleading statements about test results in reports to the clients. The lab tests sunscreens and other cosmetics for safety and effectiveness.
Winne, of Cold Spring, was hired in 1987 and left the company in May 2017, about six weeks after FBI agents and the Rockland County District Attorney”™s Office raided AMA offices and labs and seized records. A second search and seizure was done the following month.
Letizia said in his press statement that Winne was fired.
Winne allegedly participated in the scheme throughout his tenure at the lab and Tatsene allegedly participated from 2005 to 2017, according to the criminal complaint. Both conspired, according to the government, with “others known and unknown.”
AMA sued Winne, Tatsene and three other employees in Westchester Supreme Court in 2017, accusing them of essentially the same scheme. Winne managed the lab and supervised Tatsene, a Rockland resident. She supervised the repeat insult patch test, according to the complaint, in which paid volunteers were exposed to clients”™ consumer products.
AMA accused them of defrauding the company by using fewer test subjects than required and then pocketing compensation that was meant for the fictitious panelists.
Winne said Tatsene did submit documents showing more panelists than the number actually used, in his answer to the complaint. But he said Letizia “was fully aware of this practice since this was how he conducted the business of AMA for many years.”
He claimed that Letizia “arrogated for himself” the money that was falsely allocated to nonexistent panelists, and that AMA”™s clients, not the company, were the victims.
Letizia denied having any knowledge of Winne’s activities, according to his press release, and “continues to maintain his innocence.”
Tatsene blamed Winne and three co-workers for the irregularities, in her response to AMA”™s lawsuit.
The lawsuit is pending.
Winne was arraigned in the criminal case May 23 and released on a $200,000 appearance bond. He is represented by Jeffrey A. Udell, Manhattan.
Tatsene was arraigned May 29 and released on a $100,000 personal recognizance bond. She is scheduled for sentencing Sept. 5 by U.S. District Judge Vincent L. Briccetti. She is represented by David I. Goldstein of Chestnut Ridge.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Coffman is prosecuting the case.
