A British Columbia-based cryptocurrency investor known for his online bragging was defrauded of $2 million in Bitcoin after his family was held hostage overnight and subjected to waterboarding, sexual assault and death threats from masked intruders they knew only as “One”, “Two”, “Three” and “Four”.
Details of the horrific attack, which was only stopped after the man's daughter escaped, have been revealed. in detail this week British Columbia provincial court judge who sentenced one of the gang members to seven years in prison.
Tsz Wing Boaz Chan, a 35-year-old man who flew from Hong Kong in early 2024 to take part in the carefully planned crime, pleaded guilty to breaking and entering, false imprisonment and sexual assault.
Judge Robin McQuillan said Chan and three others held the family at gunpoint, beat and threatened the man while forcing his daughtero Strip naked in a video next to an open passport, threatening to post it on social media if they go to the police.
A man with a disguised voice on the phone demanded 200 bitcoins – worth about $26 million. But the gang was only able to access about $2 million from accounts belonging to the man and his wife.
“Inside the Chinese community of British Columbia, [the investor] boasted and exaggerated his success in cryptocurrency investments,” McQuillan wrote.
“[He] explained to the man over the phone that he had exaggerated his success and lost his cryptocurrency in 2018 as a result of fraud.”
“Wrench Attacks”
The attack is part of a wave of incidents that have spooked cryptocurrency investors around the world as bitcoin's staggering rise in value has made it a target for so-called “spanner-wrench attacks.”
IN recent article Regarding self-defense forums for cryptocurrency traders, the New York Times said investors and their families “were targeted by attackers more than 60 times” last year.
High-profile cases included kidnapping and waterboarding self-proclaimed “Crypto King” Aiden Pleterskiing in Ontario in 2022 and a horrific attack in January in which attackers were held to ransom after cutting off the finger of the founder of a French cryptographic hardware firm.
A New York Times report describes the mechanics of cryptocurrencies as an “attractive target.”
“Unlike bank transfers, crypto transactions do not require authorization from a financial institution,” the report states.
“They are instantaneous and irreversible.”
Chance to make money in Canada
Chan was sentenced in Port Coquitlam, a suburb of Vancouver. But the location of the family's home, as well as their names, ages and any other identifying details, were removed from McQuillan's decision.
According to the decision, Chan, an unemployed seaman who was struggling to make ends meet as a waiter, was hired in early 2024 by an acquaintance who suggested an opportunity “involving going into someone's house in Canada, beating them up, and then leaving.”
“At first he thought the acquaintance was joking, but a few days later the person contacted Mr. Chan and asked if he was interested,” McQuillan wrote.
“He was offered an amount equivalent to six months of his family mortgage payments.”
Three weeks before the attack, Chan and the other men lived in a house where they wore masks, “and he knew they couldn’t talk to each other.”
“A week before the crime was committed, Mr Chan was told to call someone. He was then ordered to call this person daily,” the verdict states.
“During these calls, he was told what his tasks were.”
After the attack, police discovered three surveillance cameras installed near the house, as well as a power source hidden in nearby bushes.
Canada Post uniform
The hostage situation began just after 6:30 pm on April 28, 2024, with a knock on the door answered by the wife of a Bitcoin investor.
“When she opened the door, she was greeted by two Asian men wearing Canada Post uniforms and Covid masks,” McQuillan wrote.
“One man was carrying a box and the other was carrying a signature pad.”
But the uniform turned out to be a ruse. When the investor's wife went upstairs to find him, two men entered the house, followed by two more. They closed the door behind them. They detained the man, his wife and daughter.
“All the men were wearing either blue medical gloves or dark gloves and masks. They spoke Mandarin, Cantonese and English and addressed each other by numbers one through four,” the judge wrote.
“The men took their cell phones and laptop computers and demanded their PIN codes and passwords. They threatened to stab or kill family members if their passwords and PINs were not provided.”
In the hours that followed, the investor and his daughter spoke on the phone in a disembodied, disguised voice. The daughter was told to fake being hit and to fake being sexually assaulted so her father could hear her in the next room.
The man was waterboarded, stripped and beaten repeatedly. He gave the attackers access to his cryptocurrency accounts, but “they told him that was not enough because they needed 200 bitcoins.”
The hostage takers later reduced the demand to 100 bitcoins, but ultimately took about $2 million worth of bitcoins, “effectively draining their accounts.”
The family's ordeal ended around 8 a.m. the next morning when the daughter escaped out the back door, ran to a neighbor's house and called 911.
But by the time the police arrived, the hostage takers were nowhere to be found.
In the weeks after the attack, police linked Chan to the attack using DNA and CCTV footage linking him to a rental car that was seen surrounding the house before the attack. But by the time he was identified, he had already flown back to Hong Kong on May 1, 2024.
Nearly three months later, Chan returned to Canada for unspecified reasons. He was arrested upon arrival.
Decades of hard work are a thing of the past
In victim impact statements, the investor and his daughter said their sense of “security was undermined.”
The girl said that she limits the time she spends at home because “what was once a place of comfort has become a place of suffering for her.”
The man said he was all too aware of how his family had suffered.
“This was carefully planned, including careful knowledge of their names, family structure, cryptocurrency holdings, their children’s schedules, and the location of the property,” the judge wrote.
“The filming of his daughter's nude videos will scar everyone for life because of the constant fear that they could be shared.”
The investor said the loss of his bitcoins was financially devastating.
“This money represented decades of hard work, which he intended to use to pay off their mortgages, maintain his business, care for their aging parents and leave a legacy for their children,” McQuillan wrote.
“Now they have three mortgages that they are struggling to make minimum payments on.”
Chan said he ultimately received about $50,000 for his part in the robbery – money he was ordered to return to the victim of the crime.
In prison, he was beaten by other prisoners, suffers from back pain and does not speak English. The judge said Chan was visibly upset during the sentencing. Given time served, he will spend another five years in custody.
