Family members of missing Rancho Cucamonga man believe he was kidnapped
"He's kind of a guide to my life, for a very long time," said Wen Hou. "I just want my dad back."
His father, Nai Ping Hou was reported missing by family on May 4, but they say things have been different since March, when he became unusually detached in their family group chat.
"Over time, when I ask if he wants to come meet up with us, you know, I have young children so it's harder for me to travel to him, he would say either he's tired, or 'I'll call you later,' or 'I can't meet,'" Hou said. "But, he's a semi-retired grandpa right now, so that's really strange."
Hou was eventually able to get some friends to check on his father. They stumbled upon a harrowing scene, finding his home of 20 years completely empty and poorly repainted.
"Not even furnitures or utensils, which is extremely bizarre," Hou said. "That's when I knew, whoever I was talking to was not hte person living at the house."
It was then that they contacted San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department investigators, who recently confirmed that someone was using Nai Ping's phone to impersonate him and made extensive fraudulent transactions with his bank account.
Hou says that on top of all of that, they drained his father's entire retirement savings and used it to purchase gold bars online.
"Over a $1 million worth of gold bars, which is extremely strange because he has never bought gold in his life," he said. "He's not an online-savvy person."
Hou is though, and it's that role in the cryptocurrency investing world that has him wondering if there's a connection because of it.
"It's possible, I'm not sure if they looked up my profile," he said. "Typically I would think if you're a big player you would get a ransom."
Family has now set up a tip website where they're offering a $250,000 reward for information that leads to Nai Ping's return or an arrest. They've also hired private investigators to further search efforts.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Latino tenants sued their landlord. A lawyer told them they would be "picked up by ICE."
In her entire law career, Sarah McCracken has never seen anything like the email she received on June 25. McCracken, a tenants' rights lawyer at Tobener Ravenscroft, is currently representing a Latino family suing a landlord and real estate agent for illegal eviction after being kicked out of their Baldwin Park home last year. A few weeks after being served, amid a series of ICE raids primarily targeting Latino communities in L.A. County, Rod Fehlman, the lawyer who appeared to be representing the agent at the time, sent McCracken's team a series of emails disputing the lawsuit and urging them to drop the case. He ended the correspondence with this: "It is also interesting to note that your clients are likely to be picked up by ICE and deported prior to trial thanks to all the good work the Trump administration has done in regards to immigration in California." "It's racist," McCracken said. "Not only is it unethical and probably illegal, but it's just a really wild thing to say — especially since my clients are U.S. citizens." The comment arrived as ICE raises tensions between landlords and Latino tenants. According to California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, ICE has been pressuring some landlords to report their tenants' immigration status. Bonta's office issued a consumer alert on Tuesday reminding landlords that "it is illegal in California to discriminate against tenants or to harass or retaliate against a tenant by disclosing their immigration status to law enforcement." Fehlman didn't respond to requests for comment, nor did the clients he seemed to be representing: real estate agent David Benavides and brokerage Majesty One Properties, Inc. Fehlman's role in the case is unclear; following requests for comment from The Times, Benavides and the brokerage responded to McCracken's complaint using a different law firm. But according to McCracken, Fehlman serves as the defendants' personal attorney and will likely still take part in the lawsuit in an advisory role. Evicted From 2018 to 2024, Yicenia Morales rented a two-bedroom condo in Baldwin Park, which she shared with her husband, three children and grandson. According to her wrongful eviction lawsuit filed in May, the house had a slew of problems: faulty electricity, leaks in the bathroom, bad ventilation, and a broken heater, air-conditioning unit and garage door. "There was a lot that needed to be fixed, but we accepted it because we were just happy to find a place to live," Morales said. The real problems started in 2024, when her landlord, Celia Ruiz, started asking the family to leave because she wanted to sell the property, which isn't a valid reason for eviction under California law or Baldwin Park's Just Cause Eviction Ordinance, the suit said. According to the lawsuit, Ruiz then changed her story, alleging that she wanted to move into the house herself, which would be a valid reason for eviction. According to the suit, Ruiz and her real estate agent, David Benavides of Majesty One Properties, constantly urged Morales and her family to leave. In September, the pressure mounted. Ruiz penned a handwritten note saying she needed the house back, and Benavides began calling them almost every day, the suit said. In November, assuming Ruiz needed to move back in, Morales left. But instead of moving in herself, Ruiz put the property on the market in January and sold it by March. "I really believed she needed the house for herself," Morales said. "I'm just tired of people taking advantage of others." Lawyer tactics Depending on your interpretation of California's Business and Professions Code, Fehlman's comment could be illegal, McCracken said. Section 6103.7 says lawyers can be suspended, disbarred or disciplined if they "report suspected immigration status or threaten to report suspected immigration status of a witness or party to a civil or administrative action." In addition, the State Bar of California bans lawyers from threatening to present criminal, administrative or disciplinary charges to obtain an advantage in a civil dispute. You could argue that Fehlman's email isn't a threat. He never said he'd call ICE himself, only claiming that Morales and her family "are likely to be picked up by ICE and deported." Morales and her entire family are all U.S. citizens. But she said she feels racially profiled because of her last name. "It's not fair for him to take advantage of that," she said. "I was born here. I have a birth certificate. I pay taxes." Just to be safe, Morales sent her birth certificates to McCracken's team. Even though she's a citizen, if Fehlman reports her to ICE, she still doesn't feel safe. Federal agents have arrested U.S. citizens during its recent raids across L.A, and a 2018 investigation by The Times found that ICE has arrested nearly 1,500 U.S. citizens since 2012, detaining some for years at a time. "I was already depressed over the eviction. Now I'm hurt, embarrassed and nervous as well. Will he really call ICE on us?" Morales said. McCracken said Fehlman's message is a byproduct of the current anti-immigrant political environment. Fehlman sent the email on June 25, the end of a jarring month that saw the agency arrest 2,031 people across seven counties in Southern California, 68% of which had no criminal convictions. "People seem to be emboldened to flout the law because they see people at the top doing it," she said. "It's totally unacceptable behavior." An ironic twist, she added, is that Fehlman's own client at the time was also Latino. "I don't know if Benavides was aware that his lawyer is making racially profiling comments, but I don't think he'd want to work with someone like that," McCracken said. The case is still in its early stages. Benavides and Majesty One Properties responded to the complaint on July 17, and McCracken's team hasn't officially served the landlord Ruiz yet because they've been unable to locate her. In the wake of the ICE comment, communication between McCracken and Fehlman halted. McCracken decided Fehlman's rant and possible threat didn't warrant a response, and Fehlman hasn't said anything else in the meantime. Her team is still deciding how they want to proceed in the wake of the comment, which could justify legal action. She called it a dangerous attempt to chill her client's speech and a failed attempt to intimidate her into dropping the case. But he took it way too far. "We're at a point in time where lawyers need to be upholding the rule of law," she said. "Especially in a time like this." Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Traders jailed for interest rate rigging have convictions overturned
Two traders jailed for rigging benchmark interest rates have had their convictions overturned by the Supreme Court. Tom Hayes, 45, was handed a 14-year jail sentence - cut to 11 years on appeal - in 2015, which was one of the toughest ever to be imposed for white-collar crime in UK history. The former Citigroup and UBS trader, along with Carlo Palombo, 46, who was jailed for four years in 2019 over rigging the Euribor interest rates, took their cases to the country's highest court after the Court of Appeal dismissed their appeals last year. The Supreme Court unanimously allowed Hayes' appeal, overturning his 2015 conviction of eight counts of conspiracy to defraud by manipulating Libor, a now-defunct benchmark interest rate. Ex-vice president of euro rates at Barclays bank Mr Palombo's conviction for conspiring with others to submit false or misleading Euribor submissions between 2005 and 2009 was also quashed. A spokesperson for the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which opposed the appeals, said it would not be seeking a retrial. In 2012, the SFO began criminal investigations into traders it suspected of manipulating the Libor and Euribor benchmark interest rates. Mr Hayes was the first person to be prosecuted by the SFO, which brought prosecutions against 20 people between 2013 and 2019, seven of whom were convicted at trial, two pleaded guilty and 11 were acquitted. He had also been facing criminal charges in the US but these were dismissed after two other men involved in a similar case had their convictions reversed in 2022. Mr Hayes, a gifted mathematician who is autistic, was described at his Southwark Crown Court trial as the "ringmaster" at the centre of an enormous fraud to manipulate benchmark interest rates and boost his own six-figure earnings. He has always maintained that the Libor rates he requested fell within a permissible range and that his conduct was common at the time and condoned by bosses. Mr Hayes and Mr Palombo argued their convictions depended on a definition of Libor and Euribor which assumes there is an absolute legal bar on a bank's commercial interests being taken into account when setting rates. The panel of five Supreme Court justices found there was "ample evidence" for a jury to convict the two men if it had been properly directed. But in an 82-page judgment, Lord Leggatt said jury direction errors made both convictions unsafe, adding: "That misdirection undermined the fairness of the trial."
Washington Post
an hour ago
- Washington Post
Peacocks roamed a historic hotel. Then they were stolen, management says.
Hotel staff have installed a new security system. Nearby farms and vineyards have offered replacements for the plunder. Law enforcement is searching for the perpetrators. After about three dozen peacocks were reported stolen Sunday from California's Ryde Hotel, employees are 'heartbroken' by the loss, manager David Nielsen said. 'They were really part of the staff in many ways, emotionally,' he said of the jewel-tailed birds.
