Yan not a suspect in Wong murder: RCMP

Web Update: Yan not a suspect in Wong murder: RCMP

Betty Yan may have had criminal ties, but she was never a suspect in the murder of Tommy Wong in 2002, say Richmond RCMP.

BY RICHMOND NEWS APRIL 21, 2009

 
  Tung Sze (Betty) Yan was found murdered April 15 in her Mercedes in an industrial park in Richmond.
Homicide investigators confirmed that Yan was well known to police for her "criminality."

She has been linked in some media reports with the murder of Tommy Wong in 2002. Wong was shot dead in what was described at the time as a home invasion at his home in Richmond. Yan was implicated in the murder when someone plastered a poster in Burnaby and Richmond accusing her and her husband, Chek Wai Kuan, of having a "direct" link to Wong's death.

But Cpl. Jennifer Pound of the Richmond RCMP issued a statement Friday in which she stated Yan was never a suspect.

"She was a person of interest," Pound said in a press release. "There is a big difference between the two in that a person of interest is someone that may have information in connection to an investigation, whereas a suspect may be someone directly involved with the crime." Pound added that, contrary to one report, Yan was not in the house at the time of Wong's death.

"There has been nothing in the RCMP investigation to support this information," Pound said.
Wong's murder has never been solved. Yan and her husband, Chek Wai Kuan, have been linked to a number of businesses and organizations in Richmond, including the Canadian Chinese Chess Society (Yan's Mercedes was parked next to it when she was found dead), as well as the Canadian Monetary Consultant Corporation.

The latter is a currency exchange located at 1425 - 4540 No. 3 Road in Empire Centre. One Richmond businessman who uses the currency exchange is now worried about using the business. The steel tool manufacturer he works for buys product in the U.S., so the company often changes large sums of Canadian money into American dollars.

He said Canadian Monetary Consultants' exchange is two per cent cheaper than the banks, which adds up to more than $300 savings on one $16,000 buy.

"My concern is: 'Are we doing business with a legitimate company?'" he wondered. "Is there going to be a potential problem?" Finance Ministry records show Betty Yan was not a director of the company, although her husband was. Chek Wai Kuan was a director with the company as recently as December 2008.

But according to a change in directors report from April 1 this year, Yu Ling Andrew Li became the sole director.

"The murdered woman had no relationship with our company," Li told the News Friday. "She was just one of our customers."

He said Yan sometimes used the currency exchange to change money. Land title records show Yan and her husband owned a mansion at 10300 Palmberg Road in a quiet rural area just north of Steveston Highway and west of No. 6 Road.

Land title records show a title change in 2007, in which the house was apparently sold to another couple. However, it appears Yan and Kuan and their children were still living there at the time of Yan's murder. One neighbour, who saw Yan's picture in media reports, confirmed the woman and her husband were still living in the house. Neighbours also said police were at the house Wednesday, after Yan was discovered dead.

"A police car stayed here all night," said one neighbour, who described the couple as "very friendly."

"I think they were good neighbours," he said.

Yan's three children attended West Point Grey Academy in Vancouver. The private school recently notified parents of children attending the school that the murdered woman's children are no longer attending the school and that it is now reviewing its admission policies.

It came as no surprise to many when Betty Yan, a.k.a. "Big Sister" Betty, was killed. Police found the mother of three shot to death in the driver's seat of her grey Mercedes in Richmond on April 15. Yan had slipped into Canada as a refugee via Bangkok in 1969 and quickly became involved in Asian organized crime groups. But she played both sides by working with police investigators, offering them information on triads. She was present when loan shark "Pretty Boy" Meng was fatally shot in a Richmond restaurant in 1988. Yan was also considered a person of interest in the murder investigation of Tommy Wong, who was killed during a Richmond home invasion in 2002. Her links to the criminal underworld didn't stop there. Yan was also a known associate of loan shark Kwok Chung Tam and was one of the first peoiple in the country to align herself with China's most wanted man, Lai Changxing. Yan had a reputation for running a violent and ruthless loan-sharking operation. She was known for taking citizenship cards as collateral when her victims failed to pay their interest.

APRIL 19, 2009 11:54 AM