For years, Richmond, resident Selina She Yin Tsui held herself out as a "holistic healer," diagnosing ailments from tapeworms, gallstones and parasites to cancer.
In one case, Tsui allegedly administered arsenic to a woman to the point of paralysis and cardiac arrest, according to a lawsuit filed by the B.C. government against Tsui in August 2010. After telling the victim her diagnosis, said the lawsuit, Tsui warned that treatment would cause "violent vomiting, uncontrollable diarrhea, peeing like a race horse and nausea to the extreme."
The lawsuit claimed that Tsui had no actual medical training and was never regis-tered with any health profession regulatory body.
After settling with Tsui in April, the province is looking for other potential victims who may be eligible for compensation for treatments paid between December 2000 and January 2009.
Tsui's residential address was listed in the August 2010 claim as being on Hollybridge Way in Richmond. She is listed on an Industry Canada corporate registry as a director of the Canadian Taekwondo Commission, which shares the same Richmond address. The commission, according to the entry, has three directors, Tsui, Michael Sirota and Ken Froese.
Sirota runs a martial arts school at the same address called Sirota's Alchymy Martial Arts and Life Skills Centre, where two of Tsui's alleged victims identified in the lawsuit, Zahra Haji and Lloyd Lukban, work as instructors, according to the centre's website.
Court documents say Tsui diagnosed Lukban in December 2000 with a "lymphadenocyst," described in the complaint by Tsui as "a degenerated lymph node caused by occlusion of its incoming lymph vessels."
Tsui charged Lukban $889 for the treatment, according to the complaint.
Tsui diagnosed Haji with "'liver gallstones,' parasites, hypothyroidism and hypoglycemia" in June 2001, according to the documents. Haji refused to comment.
Emmeline "Kimber" Lee was also named in the court documents as a victim who was allegedly charged $328,940 U.S. and $81,000 Canadian between March 26, 2002 and May 5, 2003.
In all, the government's complaint identifies 11 people Tsui allegedly treated between December 2002 and May 2003.
Efforts to track down Tsui were unsuccessful.
Sirota, not named in court documents nor accused of wrongdoing, refused to comment about Tsui's involve-ment with the Canadian Taekwondo Commission.
"I believe that you have a lot of misinformation," Sirota said. Tsui's former lawyer, Marco von Antal of the law firm Chen and Leung, said he couldn't comment specifically on the case.
Richmond RCMP Cpl. Tony Bernard wouldn't say whether or not an investigation is ongoing or had even occurred. Emails to instructors and subsequent calls to Sirota's Alchymy were not returned.
"It is important to note that the civil forfeiture office and the defendant reached an agreement without trial," stated a Ministry of Public Safety spokesperson in an email about the April settlement. "The allegations in the court documents remain just that - unproven allegations."
"In this case, the civil forfeiture office has successfully applied its legislation to divest Ms. Tsui of the profits from her alleged unlawful activities, and return it to people who allege she profited by victimizing them."
According to the government's public notice in the June 30 edition of the B.C. Gazette, people have until Oct. 7 to apply for compensation.
