Elaborate planning behind violent international plot to steal crypto revealed in sentencing for Port Moody home invasion

Warning: Disturbing details.

Newly released court documents reveal the full scale of the violence, organization, and meticulous preparation behind an April 2024 home invasion in Port Moody’s quiet Heritage Woods neighbourhood.

On Nov. 14, 35-year-old Tsz Wing Boaz Chan, was sentenced to seven years in prison after a provincial court hearing outlining the 13-hour crime, which involved complex surveillance, death threats, torture, and sexualized coercion of a teenage girl – all carried out in an attempt to steal a family’s cryptocurrency.

Justice Robin McQuillan described the transnational scheme as a “heinous offence.”

“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,” McQuillan said. 

Chan, a foreign national from Hong Kong, pled guilty earlier this year to break and enter, unlawful confinement and sexual assault after being arrested at YVR in July 2024 trying to reenter the country. Four other suspects involved in the crime have not yet been publicly identified or charged.

Chan entered Canada just weeks before the attack on April 27, for the sole purpose of participating in the crime, which he was recruited for by an acquaintance in Hong Kong, according to court documents. 

Highly organized and violent attack

The court heard how surveillance cameras had been placed outside the family’s Heritage Woods home in the days leading up to the incident. Unknown individuals returned repeatedly to adjust them, and police later recovered three outdoor cameras connected to a concealed power supply in bushes near the street. Inside the house, investigators found a separate set of cameras that had been positioned by the perpetrators.

The family of three – who are only identified by initials in the court documents – had no warning before the attack began. 

Two men dressed in Canada Post Uniforms rang the doorbell at around 6:30 p.m., holding a parcel addressed to the father and an electronic signature pad. After answering the door, the mother left momentarily to speak with her husband and the men stepped inside and quietly closed the door. Two more masked men then entered.

All four assailants wore gloves and masks and communicated using numbers rather than names, switching between Mandarin, Cantonese and English. They were armed with firearms or imitation firearms, knives, a rubber mallet and batons, and bear spray.

Once the family was corralled to the foyer, the intruders forced them to the ground. Their heads were pushed down, and their wrists zip-tied. The attackers seized phones and laptops and demanded passwords, threatening to cut or kill the family if they refused.

The judge described their behaviour as deliberately designed to terrify, with each family member held in a different part of the house and forced to listen to the others’ fear, pain and distress.

The attackers spent much of the night trying to access the family’s cryptocurrency accounts, repeatedly demanding credentials to give them access to the family’s holdings. They had extensive knowledge about the family’s finances, property ownership and personal details.

When they struggled to move funds electronically, the violence escalated.

The father was stripped naked, beaten and then waterboarded repeatedly. He told the court that each time water was poured over the cloth covering his face he felt he was being pushed “to the edge of death.” His injuries were extensive, including severe bruising, swelling and the onset of rhabdomyolysis – a life-threatening condition resulting from damaged skeletal muscle.

The mother was also waterboarded while bound, blindfolded and gagged. She was kept in restraints for hours, emerging with swollen, bruised wrists and injuries to her shoulder from being held in unnatural positions. Although her physical injuries were less severe, the court noted that her emotional trouble was profound.

The daughter endured a form of psychological torture that combined threats, coercion and sexualized humiliation. She was initially blindfolded and gagged with a towel, and at various points told she would be cut if she did not obey commands. A man who communicated through a voice-altering filter ordered her to scream and pretend to be beaten or sexually assaulted so her father would hear her.

Later she was taken to a separate room where two masked men forced her to strip naked and filmed her in degrading poses. Her passport was placed beside her while she was recorded, and she was told that the videos would be posted online if the family contacted police. The judge described these videos as particularly destructive, because the threat of their release will haunt the victim indefinitely.

Throughout the night, the attackers forced the parents to transfer cryptocurrency, ultimately draining the equivalent of $1.6 million US from their accounts – the family’s entire savings, including funds belonging to relatives.

Before leaving, they submerged electronics in a bathtub filled with water and bleach in an effort to destroy evidence.

The family remained bound and blindfolded until early morning, when the daughter managed to free herself from confinement, escape through the back door and seek help from a neighbour. 

Police arrived around 8:30 a.m., finding the father still partially unclothed and restrained, and the mother bound and gagged in an upstairs bedroom.

The court heard that the consequences for the victims have been life-altering. 

In statements submitted to the court, the daughter described nightmares, difficulty concentrating, a persistent fear of strangers and an inability to feel safe in the home. The father said he continues to suffer chronic pain, anxiety and guilt, and that the taking of the sexually explicit videos of his daughter has left the family living in perpetual fear.

The family’s financial situation has collapsed; decades of savings are gone, and they are now burdened with multiple mortgages and are reliant on friends for basic expenses. Their son, who was accepted to several top universities, has deferred his education because they cannot afford to support him.

Arrest

Police identified Chan through a combination of forensic evidence, rental records, and a trail of surveillance footage showing the attackers’ movements before, during, and after the home invasion.

CCTV cameras from neighbouring houses captured a white Honda Odyssey repeatedly approaching the residence on the evening of April 27, including footage showing four masked men exiting the vehicle and one of them – later confirmed to be Chan – carrying a large cardboard box used to impersonate a package delivery.

Investigators noticed the van had distinctive roof tabs and traced it to a Richmond dealership, where staff confirmed Chan had rented the vehicle shortly before the attack, and had requested an extension through April 30. The car was returned less than two hours after the assailants left the home. Dealership security video showed Chan stepping out of the van wearing the same clothing seen in neighbourhood surveillance footage.

His DNA later matched multiple items left in the family’s home

Police also learned from border records that Chan had flown out of Canada on May 1, just days after the home invasion.

A Canada-wide warrant was issued, and weeks later, Port Moody Police were alerted that Chan was inbound on a flight landing at YVR.

Sentencing

Chan’s own background stands in stark contrast to the severity of the offence. He grew up in Hong Kong, lived with his parents and sister, and had no criminal record.

After losing work during the pandemic and struggling with family mortgage payments, he was approached with an offer of payment to “beat someone up” in Canada, for an amount he believed would cover six months of mortgage costs.

He told the court he did not initially understand the scale of the planned crime, but acknowledged that he had opportunities to withdraw and did not do so.

After returning to Hong Kong on May 1, he received approximately $280,000 HKD ($50,400 CAD) as payment. He inexplicably flew back to Canada ten weeks later, where he was arrested at YVR.

In delivering the sentence, Justice McQuillan emphasized the “extreme level of violence,” the prolonged length of the ordeal, the planning involved, and the lasting physical and psychological harm inflicted on the victims.

The judge also noted that while Chan expressed remorse and had supportive family members, denunciation and deterrence had to be the dominant principles given the seriousness of the offences.

Chan was sentenced to seven years in prison, minus time served, along with a DNA order, a weapons prohibition, and a $50,000 restitution order.

Police say the investigation remains ongoing. Three other attackers seen on video and referenced in the agreed facts have not been identified, and one man believed to have directed the operation by phone has also not been located.

“Mr. Chan did not operate alone and the matter remains active as investigators still work to identify other suspects,” said Const. Sam Zacharias, media officer with the Port Moody police department.