Canadian DNA lab knew its paternity tests identified the wrong dads, but it kept selling them
CBC
A Canadian DNA laboratory knowingly delivered prenatal paternity test results that routinely identified the wrong biological fathers — ruling out the real dads — and left a trail of shattered lives around the globe, a CBC News investigation has found.
Harvey Tenenbaum, the owner of Viaguard Accu-Metrics, told a CBC producer with a hidden camera during a conversation in his office that prenatal paternity test results that his laboratory produced for about a decade were "never that accurate."
The hidden camera conversation unfolded in the midst of a months-long CBC News investigation into a years-long pattern of erroneous results produced by Viaguard's non-invasive prenatal paternity testing. The test — if done correctly — matches DNA from a fetus that is in a mother's blood with the biological father's DNA.
Viaguard, based in Toronto, sold its prenatal tests through various related online storefronts with names like Prenatal Paternities Inc. and Paternity Depot.
"The test was not that accurate…. And we're leery of that test now," said Tenenbaum.
Tenenbaum is 91 and still runs the laboratory, showing up onsite most days, answering phones and meeting with customers.
A longtime businessman, it seems he began selling DNA services through Viaguard in the early 2000s, registering a prenatal paternity division in 2013, according to business records.
During the hidden camera encounter, he presented himself as a seasoned scientific expert who's seen it all, and, in a matter-of-fact tone, said he knows mistaken prenatal paternity results could inflict lasting damage on lives.
"There's a lot involved if it gets screwed up," Tenenbaum told the CBC News producer, who posed as a prospective customer seeking a paternity test.
"What if it's the wrong guy named and you're aborting your child of, you know, a wrong person…. We can imagine everything happens in life…. You see them all, and worse, and worse."
He also described instances where Viaguard's tests were proven wrong during a birth.
"That has happened. Test the white guy and the baby came out Black, and the white guy's saying: 'What's going on here?'" said Tenenbaum.
When CBC News later directly approached Tenenbaum, he reversed himself, saying the tests were "accurate" and "perfect." He said he stopped selling them over rising overhead costs.
CBC News interviewed dozens of people whose lives were impacted by Viaguard's wrong prenatal paternity test results. Many former customers paid from $800 to slightly more than $1,000 for the laboratory's home test kits from 2014 to 2020.
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