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Suthanthiran has denied any wrongdoing, and his dogged fight to squelch the Belgian probe has been playing out in courtrooms in two Canadian provinces.

Suspicion is not the kind of attention he is used to.

Photo by Kitsault Resort Ltd/HO

Suthanthiran, 71, one of six children born to grocery-store owners in southern India, immigrated to Canada in 1969 for a mechanical engineering degree at Carleton University in Ottawa. He had just $400 when he arrived, according to a written biography from his company.

After his father died from cancer while he was a student, Suthanthiran dedicated his career to researching and treating the disease. He abandoned plans to go to medical school when he got a job in the United States helping an oncologist with engineering projects. In 1977 he started a medical supply business and, with its tremendous success, expanded to other countries and other investments. He positions himself as a global entrepreneur and philanthropist engaged in medical, energy, entertainment and real estate.

The former mining town that made Suthanthiran’s name in Canada was built in the 1970s and 1980s to house employees of the neighbouring molybdenum mine. Despite a surge of optimism, it was abandoned just 18 months after residents moved in, when molybdenum prices cratered and the mine shut down in 1983.

In 2005 Suthanthiran bought the whole town, 1,500 kilometres north of Vancouver, for less than $7 million.

He seems stumped on viable ways to use it. Early ideas focused on ecology, education, health and peace, even a Gandhi film festival. His latest push has been to convert it into an energy terminus for shipping Albertan energy products to Asia and Latin America. In February, Suthanthiran announced a plan to make it a site to turn waste into energy, inviting municipalities, companies and governments to partner with him.