Partners nabbed over allegedly fake $370m. medical patch

Buchnik and Klein are suspected of fraud and forgery.

By CHEN MA’ANIT
Dr. Amos Buchnik and Arik Klein were arrested at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday by the Tel Aviv District Police fraud squad over allegations that they developed a fictitious medical patch in 2009, which at the time was exposed by Globes.
Buchnik and Klein are suspected of fraud and forgery, based on an investigation that lasted several months, during which the police gathered evidence and documents.
Buchnik owns SafeSky Software Ltd., which owns the rights to the Life Keeper “miracle patch”, a device that allegedly prevents heart attacks. Last month, he testified in court that he did not believe that Klein, who invented the patch, had carried out a sting on him, despite reports about Klein’s dubious conduct.
“There was no sting. There is a patch, and there is a deal,” he said in the libel suit he and Klein filed against Globes with the Petah Tikva Magistrates Court.
In July 2009, Buchnik and Klein claimed to have sold a 37 percent stake in the Life Keeper device to Taiwan computer hardware manufacturer Micro- Star International Co. Ltd. for $370 million. The deal sounded incredible, both because of the amount of money involved and the product’s scientific breakthrough. Moreover, those in the Israeli medical and life science industry had never heard of the product or the company.
It quickly emerged that the alleged product had no patents or certification from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). MSI denied that there was a deal and said that it had never heard of the entrepreneurs.
Besides Buchnik and Klein, no employees could be found for the company, and no doctors existed who had tested the device at any medical center. A computer store in Petah Tikva claimed that Klein had bought an RFID chip that closely resembled the patch that he and Buchnik had presented.
Moreover, Klein had been jailed for six years for fraud when he allegedly developed the device alone.
The two were set to be brought before the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court for remand later Sunday.