Ontario man pleads guilty in New York in hair-testing fraud scheme

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An Ontario man has pleaded guilty to fraud charges in New York after he made millions selling a fake food allergy testing service.

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On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice said Kyle Tsui, 41, pled guilty to wire fraud and mail fraud. Both convictions carry a maximum sentence of 20 years each in prison. He also agreed to pay $4,165,884.70.

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Tsui, who was indicted in November 2023 and extradited from Spain, will be sentenced May 30.

From September 2018 through April 2019, authorities said Tsui orchestrated a scheme to defraud customers of his company by selling food and environmental sensitivity testing services to customers through his company’s website.

The Allergy Testing Company promoted its “(h)ighly-rated, top selling sensitivity and intolerance test” that “determines how your body responds to 800 different food and environmental items” with just “a small hair sample.”

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Investigators said Tsui’s company didn’t test the hair samples but actually had them discarded in the trash without any laboratory analysis.

Customers then received fake test results that identified some foods and environmental factors that were “safe” for them and others that the customers were supposedly “sensitive” to and should avoid.

The Department of Justice said Tsui defrauded over 88,000 customers after sales of approximately $5.9 million of the fraudulent hair testing service.

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“As he has now admitted, Kyle Tsui defrauded tens of thousands of innocent victims, whose health was put at risk with false allergy and sensitivity testing results,” Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.

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“Tsui’s company advertised ‘highly-rated’ allergy and sensitivity testing services but didn’t even attempt to test the samples his paying customers sent in, instead directing others to throw the samples in the garbage. Tsui now faces prison time for his brazen scam.”

Williams thanked the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Hyde Park Police Department, New York State Troopers, Toronto Police Service, Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs, and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

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