NJ lab owner from NY admits sneaking into and trashing competitor’s lab

🔴 Man admits trashing rival NJ lab
🔴 Posed as tech to gain access
🔴 Same CEO reached $13M fraud settlement

A 33-year-old New York man who ran an embattled laboratory in Union County has admitted to tricking a competitor and destroying and stealing equipment from a lab in Millburn.

Eric Leykin, of Brooklyn, was owner and chief executive officer of RDx Bioscience in Kenilworth.

Last year, Leykin and RDx agreed to a $10 million federal settlement and another $3 million to the state to resolve allegations involving illegal kickbacks and medically unnecessary lab testing.

Now, Leykin has pleaded guilty to wire fraud for an incident in which he impersonated a technician to enter a competitor’s lab.

Leykin bought a prepaid mobile phone, used to call and arrange a maintenance visit on July 1, 2022, at the victim lab, U.S. Attorney John Giordano said.

He arrived posing as a vendor technician and then destroyed and stole equipment, officials said.

Among the actions he took, as described in his indictment:

▪️ Unplugging a backup generator

▪️ Removing at least four hard drives from servers, connected to a system that stored patient personally identifying information

▪️ Removing hard drives of at least three other computers, wrecking them

▪️ Cutting wiring inside the building, including to a surveillance system

▪️ Significant damage to other lab equipment.

Sentencing was set for July 22 in Newark federal court.

Leykin will face up to 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of either $250,000 or twice the gain or loss from the offense, whichever is greatest.

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