Startup Sold DNA Kits to Test Poop. Prosecutors Say It’s a Fraud

The founders of medical testing company uBiome Inc. were criminally charged with a $60 million fraud in an alleged scheme that reads like a smaller-scale, lower-profile version of the spectacular collapse of Theranos Inc.

Offering products that allowed consumers and patients to analyze the DNA of their own microbiomes from fecal samples, uBiome filed for bankruptcy in September 2019, about four months after the FBI began investing its billing practices. Among its creditors were high-profile venture capital firms 8VC and Andreessen Horowitz.

Now, its former chief executives, Jessica Richman, 46, and Zachary Apte, 36, face charges of securities ...