PLANO, Texas – State authorities have revoked the licenses of a massage therapy school, as well as three massage therapists and two instructors associated with the school.
On Thursday, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) announced that it had issued an emergency order that closes the Wellness Education Center in Plano.
They also revoked the licenses of Xiuzhen Sun, Mingzhi Song, and Lei Jiang, and the massage instructor licenses of the latter two. They cannot work as massage therapy instructors in the state of Texas.
“TDLR has reasonable cause to believe that the school, through the actions of these three individuals, has been involved in assisting students in obtaining or trying to obtain massage therapy licenses by fraud or false representation and by falsifying documents that were submitted to TDLR,” said TDLR. “In addition, the Department has identified many cases where Wellness Education Center graduates are working as massage therapists at illicit massage businesses and have found other connections to the illicit massage industry.”
An investigation by TDLR revealed that the school had falsified academic and internship records that were then submitted to TDLR as part of applications for massage therapist licenses. Sun, Song, and Jiang are all listed as graduates of the Wellness Education Center.
“Massage schools are expected to uphold rigorous educational standards to ultimately protect the health and safety of Texas consumers,” said TDLR Executive Director Courtney Arbour. “We will take immediate action when we find schools that are not adhering to state law.”
Officials also said that after a thorough investigation, they found that one of the visitors to the school is an individual who has been subject to multiple TDLR emergency license suspension orders for suspected human trafficking in establishments in Garland and Fort Worth.