A Canadian paternity DNA company knowingly distributed inaccurate tests that identified the wrong father, destroying families, a new report alleges.
Viaguard Accu-Metrics sold and supplied at-home tests to check the identity of a baby’s father for a period of ten years through online retailers charging up to $1,000.
Families who used the tests have now spoken out about receiving false results, excluding real fathers and ending relationships.
Owner of Viaguard Accu-Metrics, Harvey Tenenbaum, 91, was caught on camera by a undercover CBC reporter he admitted that he knew the tests were “never that accurate.”
He listed the times when the test had been wrong, saying, “Tested the white man and the baby came out black, and the white man said, ‘What’s going on here?’
Corale Mayer had her baby’s real father ruled out by a Viaguard test and only discovered the mistake months after she was born
She said the experience was “extremely traumatic” because it prompted her to involve a man who was not the real father in her baby’s life.
Viaguard is based in Toronto but sold its tests online around the world to families in the US, UK, Australia and Guatemala.
It is still run by Tenenbaum, who started selling DNA services through Viaguard in the early 2000s and started the prenatal paternity portion of the company in 2013, according to CBC.
If the tests are done correctly, they should be able to match a fetus’s DNA to the biological father’s DNA.
But when CBC went undercover as a potential customer to interview Tenenbaum, he acknowledged that the tests were inaccurate.
He said, “The test wasn’t that accurate…. And we are now suspicious of that test.
“There’s a lot involved when it gets screwed up. What if it’s the wrong person and you abort your child from, you know, the wrong person…. We can imagine that all kinds of things happen in life…. You see them all, and worse, and worse.’
When CBC officially contacted him, he insisted the tests were “accurate” and “perfect.”
But parents tell a completely different story.
Corale Mayer, 22, of North Bay, Ontario, was 19 when she discovered she was pregnant.
She looked online and ordered two paternity tests for $800 each from Viaguard: they ruled out the real father and confirmed the wrong man was the father.
She didn’t discover the mistake until months after the baby was born, when she used a different DNA testing service.
She told CBC: “It’s extremely traumatic. You know when you’re so hysterically upset that you laugh like you’re beyond all emotion?’
Mayer started a Facebook support group to find other parents let down by the tests – the group now has more than 90 members.
Viaguard Accu-Metrics owner Harvey Tenenbaum, 91, was caught on camera by CBC admitting the tests were inaccurate
When they asked him officially later, he said the tests were “perfect.”
In Atlanta, Georgia, John Brennan had a similar experience to Mayer when he received a false positive result during a test.
He told CBC: “As soon as I saw those test results, it was like a line in the sand. Immediately, in that moment, things just changed.”
He bought a house and a car and devoted his life to the baby, even getting his name Travis tattooed on his arm.
But eight months later he discovered that the test was wrong and that he was not really the father.
He said: ‘There’s no handbook on how to deal with raising a child for eight months and then discovering it’s not yours. You are left mentally in a mysterious, dark place.’
There is a surprising lack of regulation for private DNA testing companies like Viaguard, with experts calling on the federal government to step in and protect customers.
Mayer told CBC: “The main thing I want Viaguard to close is for it to close. I think that’s a collective feeling. I don’t think anyone would ever imagine it still being open.”
DailyMail.com has contacted Viaguard for comment.
The company was previously accused of fraudulent practices after a customer submitted his dog’s DNA instead of his own and was told it was descended from Native Americans.
Louis Cote, a resident of Mascouche, Quebec, sent his own DNA and his girlfriend’s chihuahua Snoopy’s to the company for testing.
When Cote received the results, he discovered that both he and Snoopy have native ancestry: 12 percent Abenaki and 8 percent Mohawk.
“I don’t feel good about the people who paid for these tests,” Cote said.
