B.C. family tortured by thieves who stole US$1.6M in crypto in ‘elaborately planned’ home invasion, court hears

An advertisement for the cryptocurrency Bitcoin is displayed on a building in Hong Kong on Nov. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

The terrifying details of a violent home invasion motivated by the theft of cryptocurrency were detailed in a sentencing decision published Thursday.

Tsz Wing Boaz Chan was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in the shocking crime, with the judge noting Chan was one of four men who targeted a couple and their daughter and made off with the family’s life savings—roughly US$1.6 million in bitcoin.

“This was an elaborately planned offence that involved extreme violence over a very long period, with enormous financial consequences, on top of the profound emotional impact it will continue to have on the victims,” Justice Robin McQuillan wrote.

Crime ‘designed to terrorize’ victims: judge

Police were called to the home on the morning of April 28, 2024, to do a wellness check on the family, whose identities are protected by a publication ban.

“When they arrived, (the husband) emerged from the home naked from the waist down, with his hands in restraints behind his back. Officers entered the home and found (the wife) in the master bedroom bound with zap straps, blindfolded, gagged and restrained inside a blanket comforter,” the judgment said.

“(The daughter) was not found inside the home. Shortly before that, (she) had escaped from the home and had fled to a friend’s nearby residence and phoned 911.”

The arrival of police marked an end to a 13-and-a half-hour ordeal that began the evening before when two men dressed in Canada Post uniforms and wearing medical masks knocked on the family’s door.

When the daughter went to get her father, two other men entered the home and the intruders overpowered and restrained the family, the court heard.

“The men all wore either blue medical gloves or dark-coloured gloves and masks. They spoke in Mandarin, Cantonese and English and referred to each other by a number, from one to four,” the decision said.

“After restraining the family, the men took their cell phones and laptop computers and demanded their PIN numbers and passwords. They threatened to cut the family or kill them if their passwords and PIN numbers were not provided.”

An agreed upon statement of facts lays out what the victims were subjected to, including repeated death threats backed up by the brandishing of weapons. Both parents were waterboarded, the daughter was sexually assaulted while being videotaped, and the father was stripped naked and brutally beaten. The word “tortured” is used by the judge.

“The actions of the participants were clearly designed to terrorize the victims,” McQuillan wrote.

“All of this occurred in their own home, a place of safety. That sense of safety and security is gone for them, possibly forever,” the decision continued.

Surveillance cameras had been planted throughout the house prior to the break-in, and the perpetrators demonstrated they had significant prior knowledge of the family’s routines and their assets, according to the decision.

After the thieves used the family’s devices to drain their cryptocurrency accounts, they put all of the electronics in the bathtub and filled it with a combination of water and bleach.

Events leading up to the home invasion

Chan pleaded guilty to one count of break-and-enter with the intent to commit robbery, one count of unlawful confinement, and one count of sexual assault.

The court heard he was approached by an “acquaintance” in Hong Kong, where he lived with his family, who approached him with “an opportunity for him to earn some money in Canada.”

Chan said he was “blinded” by the possibility of making a significant amount of money with which to support his family—the equivalent of C$50,000—and thought all he would have to do was go to someone’s house, “beat them up” and leave, according to the decision.

“Once he arrived in Canada, he realized that more was involved and that the plan was different than what he had understood,” the judge wrote.

When Chan arrived in the country, he was told to take a cab from the airport to a secondary location and then was picked up and taken to a house where he would remain for the next three weeks, the court heard.

“There were three other men living in the house. All the men in the house were wearing masks and he understood that they were not to speak to one another,” the decision said.

“A week before the offence, Mr. Chan was told to call someone. He was then instructed to phone that person daily. During those calls, he was told what his tasks were to be.”

Chan was the one who rented the van the four men drove to and from the family’s house, which he did using an international driver’s licence he had obtained shortly before flying to Canada, according to the decision.

Ultimately, this was what led to his arrest, after police linked the vehicle to the crime, and Chan to the rental.

Chan returned to Hong Kong three days after the robbery and collected his payment soon after, but he returned to Canada for “reasons that are not explained” and was taken into custody at Vancouver International Airport in July of 2024.

After credit for time served in custody, Chan’s seven-year prison sentence works out to five years and nine days, after which he will be deported to Hong Kong.

Victims still ‘tormented’

McQuillan listed a number of aggravating factors in the case, including the degree of premeditation involved—acknowledging Chan was not directly involved or in charge of the planning but finding he was “aware of it and acquiesced in its implementation.”

Similarly, even if Chan was not directly responsible for every individual act of violence, he was an active participant in an extremely violent crime carried out over a prolonged period of time.

The court heard victim impact statements from the father and his daughter—both describing themselves as “tormented” by what they endured.

The daughter told the court she is plagued by flashbacks and nightmares, carries a weapon with her whenever she goes out alone and avoids being at home.

“She has lost a sense of safety and views strangers with suspicion,” the judge wrote, summarizing the statement. “What was once a place of comfort has become a place of distress for her.”

The father, in his statement, said each of the 10 times he was waterboarded he felt he was “taken to the edge of death” and that the physical injuries he sustained were significant.

“His legs were repeatedly beaten with hard objects causing massive bruising, subcutaneous bleeding and muscle swelling. He continues to suffer from pain, numbness and poor circulation in his legs and is unable to sit or stand for long periods,” the court heard.

In addition, being bound and blindfolded while he could hear his wife and daughter being “assaulted and degraded next to him” is one of the reasons he is plagued with “flashbacks, anxiety, shame and guilt.”

While Chan’s sentence was meted out based on the particulars of the case, the judge also pointed to a need to prevent similar crimes in the future.

“Given the transnational circumstances present here, any sentence must send a message that coming to Canada to commit such a heinous offence will not be tolerated,” McQuillan said.

The local police department issued a news release about Chan’s sentencing Wednesday, saying the investigation remains active as detectives work to identify other suspects.