A B.C. cryptocurrency investor known for his online boasts was robbed 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.”
The details of the terrifying attack — which was only cut short after the man’s daughter escaped — were detailed this week by a B.C. Provincial court judge who sentenced one of the gang members to seven years in jail.
Tsz Wing Boaz Chan — a 35-year-old who flew in from Hong Kong in early 2024 to take part in the elaborately planned crime — pleaded guilty to break and enter, unlawful confinement and sexual assault.
Judge Robin McQuillan said Chan and three others held the family at gunpoint, beating and threatening the man while forcing his daughter to strip naked in a video next to her open passport — threatening to post it to social media if they went to the police.
A man with a disguised voice at the end of a phone demanded 200 bitcoin — worth around $26 million. But the gang only managed to access around $2 million from accounts belonging to the man and his wife.
“Within the Chinese community in B.C., [the investor] has boasted and exaggerated about his success with cryptocurrency investments,” McQuillan wrote.
“[He] explained to the man on the phone that he had exaggerated his success and that he had lost his cryptocurrency in 2018 in a scam.”
‘Wrench attacks’
The attack is part of a wave of incidents that have terrified cryptocurrency investors around the globe as the staggering increase in the value of bitcoin has made them targets for what have become known as “wrench attacks.”
In a recent article about self-defence forums for cryptocurrency traders, the New York Times claimed investors and their families “have been targeted by assailants more than 60 times” in the past year.
Self-proclaimed ‘Crypto King’ Aiden Pleterski was zip-tied and restrained with tape during a 2022 kidnapping, according to an agreed statement of facts. (Ontario Superior Court)
High profile cases have included the kidnapping and waterboarding of self-proclaimed “Crypto King” Aiden Pleterski in Ontario in 2022 and a gruesome assault in January that saw attackers collect ransom after cutting off the finger of the founder of a French crypto hardware firm.
The New York Times report described the mechanics of crypto as “an appealing target.”
“Unlike bank transfers, crypto transactions don’t require the authorization of a financial institution,” the report says.
“They are instantaneous and irreversible.”
A chance to make money in Canada
Chan was sentenced in Port Coquitlam, a suburb of Vancouver. But the location of the family’s home, along with their names, ages and any other identifying details have been redacted from McQuillan’s decision.
According to the decision, Chan — an out-of-work sailor who was having a hard time making ends meet as a waiter — was recruited in early 2024 by an acquaintance who proposed an opportunity that “involved going into someone’s house in Canada, beating someone up, and then leaving.”
Tsz Wing Boaz Chan flew from Hong Kong to Vancouver in the weeks before he took part in the violent hostage-taking of a cryptocurrency investor and his family. (Reuters)
“At first, he thought the acquaintance was joking, but a few days later, the person followed up with Mr. Chan, asking him if he was interested,” McQuillan wrote.
“He was offered what was the equivalent of six months of his family mortgage payments.”
For three weeks before the attack, Chan and the other men lived in a house where they wore masks “and he understood that they were not to speak to one another.”
“A week before the offence, Mr. Chan was told to call someone. He was then instructed to phone that person daily,” the judgement says.
“During those calls, he was told what his tasks were to be.”
After the attack, police found three surveillance cameras planted outside the house, along with a power source hidden in the nearby bushes.
Canada Post uniforms
The hostage taking began just after 6:30 p.m. on April 28, 2024, with a knock on the door, answered by the bitcoin investor’s wife.
“When she opened the door, she was met by two Asian males dressed in Canada Post uniforms and wearing Covid facemasks,” McQuillan wrote.
“One man carried a box and the other carried a signature pad.”
Two of the attackers showed up at the family’s door in Canada Post uniforms, claiming to have a package for delivery. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
But the uniforms were a ruse. As the investor’s wife went upstairs to find him, the two men entered the house, followed by two more. They closed the door behind them. They restrained the man, his wife and his daughter.
“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 judge wrote.
“The men took their cell phones and lap top…