VANISHING ACT
Now a fugitive from justice, ex-Vancouver realtor being pursued by private investigator, police
A former Vancouver real-estate agent has disappeared, and nobody seems to know where he is. Not past associates who say they lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to him, not the police who obtained a Canada-wide warrant for his arrest, not the private investigator who has been tracking him, not the Vancouver real-estate brokerage where he once worked, not even his wife.
Howard Chong, 39, presented different faces to the different people named as victims in the criminal indictment charging him with 10 counts of fraud and theft, according to a private investigator who pursued him.
Chong portrayed himself as a Chinese pop musician and songwriter, and even as an authorized representative of a “prestigious Hong Kong-based investment service,” says the private investigator’s report.
Some of Chong’s associates knew him to wear fine suits. Others said he usually dressed in Lululemon. He drove around town in a black BMW M4, and presented himself as a real-estate agent, and was licensed as one, although, apparently, he never completed any real-estate transactions. Investigators who worked on the case described it as especially complex.
Chong’s weight, hair, and stories changed frequently, said Denis Gagnon, a private investigator hired by one of the alleged victims. “He’s like a chameleon,” Gagnon said.
A MUTUAL FRIEND’S INTRODUCTION
Parts of Gagnon’s report were filed in B.C. Supreme Court in connection with a civil lawsuit launched by the man who hired him, a Coquitlam accountant named Evan Jiang. Jiang filed suit in September 2015 seeking to recover the $300,000 he alleges he lost to Howard Chong, also known as Yin-Hou Chong, in a “fraudulent” investment agreement. Chong never filed a response.
In May 2016, Jiang won a default judgment from the court, ordering Chong to pay costs plus damages.
In May 2017, Chong was charged with 10 counts of theft and fraud over $5,000, crimes alleged to have taken place in Richmond between 2013 and 2015 involving seven different victims. The day RCMP Cpl. Jagmeet Dandiwal swore the charges in provincial court in Richmond, he also asked for an arrest warrant, affirming there were “probable grounds to believe that it is necessary in the public interest to issue this warrant for the arrest of the accused.”