WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The former CEO of SCWorx Corp, a provider of management software for healthcare providers, was convicted by a federal jury in New Jersey for his role in a scheme to mislead investors about procurement of COVID-19 rapid test kits, the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday.

The jury convicted Marc Schessel, 64, of two counts of securities fraud, the Justice Department said in a statement.

It said that in early 2020, Schessel caused SCWorx to issue multiple public statements claiming that SCWorx was buying and reselling at least 48 million COVID-19 test kits, despite knowing that the statements were false.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler)