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Amid legal woes, Pekin's Reditus Labs is going out of business

Reditus Laboratories in Pekin has performed more than 2.4 million COVID-19 tests since April 2020.
Joe Deacon
/
WCBU
Reditus Laboratories in Pekin has performed more than 2.4 million COVID-19 tests since April 2020.

Reditus Laboratories is going out of business as the company's owners remain embroiled in a highly public and bitter legal dispute.

That's according to a statement released by the Pekin-based testing company Monday.

Reditus will cease all testing as of this Friday. The company was placed into receivership in April, taking it out of the direct financial control of embattled CEO Aaron Rossi.

A heated civil legal dispute betweenthe company's owners continues in Tazewell County circuit court. The company's statement said the owners don't oppose liquidation of the company as the litigation continues, though the protracted dispute is cited as "just one factor" in the decision to shut down the company and sell off its assets.

Rossi also faces unrelated federal tax fraud charges. Rossi has pleaded not guilty to those charges.

Reditus Labs was founded in 2019. The company received a $100,000 loan from the Pekin City Council to help jumpstart its operations.The company employed nearly 300 people during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, when demand for its testing services was highest.

Employees are being notified of the company's impending closure.

The company's work included a lucrative contract with the State of Illinois for COVID-19 PCR testing, to the tune of more than $222 million.

Tim is the News Director at WCBU Peoria Public Radio.