In July 2014, the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission and Barbera settled separate
civil securities fraud charges against Barbera,
barring him from future securities laws
violations as he agreed to pay a $100,000
penalty and never again act as an officer or
director of a public company.
The SEC brought fresh charges Wednesday
in Manhattan federal court, saying Barbera’s
comments to investors were false and misleading
because NASA’s sensor device was designed to
diagnose diabetes, not cancer or drugs.
It said NASA and Nanobeak signed a licensing
agreement in 2013, to develop the device for
use in cancer and narcotics detection, and
Nanobeak paid NASA about $340,000, but all
work on the proposed technology had ceased
by late 2017 because Nanobeak failed to fully
fund the research.
The SEC said Barbera falsely told at least one
investor that Nanobeak had agreements with
some local sheriff ’s departments in Florida
and Colorado, was working on a deal with
the Los Angeles police department and that
law enforcement agencies wanted to buy
Nanobeak’s sensor technology.
In fact, the SEC said, Barbera only had
agreements with some local sheriff ’s
departments calling for them to accept free
samples of the sensor to try out once it was
functional and available.
The SEC said Barbera also falsely claimed to be
a former NASA scientist when he had previously
testified that he merely worked as a research
assistant through a NASA affiliated program in
New York.