A Canadian man pleaded guilty Thursday in New York to running a fraudulent allergy testing service over several months.
Between September 2018 and April 2019, 41-year-old Kyle Tsui carried out a scheme to deceive his company's customers by selling food and environmental impact tests on his company's website.
The allergy testing company actively promoted its “highly rated and best-selling sensitivity and intolerance test” and claimed to be able to determine the body's response to “800 different foods and environmental agents” using a simple hair sample.
Investigators found that the hair samples were not even analyzed, but simply thrown in the trash once they were received by Mr. Tsui's company. Customers would then receive false results, labeling certain foods and environmental factors as “safe,” while others supposedly should be avoided due to customers’ perceived sensitivities.
The Justice Department revealed that Mr. Tsui defrauded more than 88,000 customers and generated nearly $5.9 million through these fraudulent hair tests. The man, originally from Ontario, now faces more than twenty years in prison and a fine of over $4 million, according to the Toronto Sun.