BC Court Dismisses Lawsuit Over Murder Victim's Funds

The British Columbia Supreme Court has dismissed a civil lawsuit brought by the family of a Chinese businessman murdered in a contract killing in 2017, seeking to recover funds they alleged the victim's killer used to purchase properties in Metro Vancouver.

The ruling, issued by Justice Gordon Funt, centered on a case filed in 2018 by relatives of Changbin Yang against Long Ni, who was in Vancouver when the murder occurred but was later arrested in China and executed in 2020 for orchestrating the killing. The suit also named Ni's wife and daughter as defendants. According to court documents, the plaintiffs claimed Ni had borrowed the equivalent of 113 million Canadian dollars from Yang, ostensibly for investments in China's mining sector, but instead diverted the money to acquire several real estate holdings in British Columbia. The family sought a total of 168 million in damages, including compensation for Yang's death, portraying him as Yichang City's wealthiest entrepreneur with stakes in a coal mine and a hotel.

Justice Funt described the matter as both extraordinary, due to the execution of the primary defendant, and ordinary, as its outcome rested on the plaintiffs'...