The FBI joins the investigation into the disappearance of a SoCal grandfather linked to a crypto fortune
The FBI has joined the investigation into the suspicious disappearance of 74-year-old Naiping Hou, a resident of Rancho Cucamonga and the father of well-known cryptocurrency investor Wen Hou.
FBI officials said the agency is joining an investigation launched last year by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. They said a joint investigation was started about a month ago.
Wen Hou could not be reached for comment
In an interview with The Times last yearHe said he began to suspect that something was wrong when he started receiving strange messages from his father in April.
He said his father gave robotic answers in a family group discussion and was silent and refused to visit his grandchildren.
It was on Naiping Hou's birthday on May 3 that his son began to suspect that someone was controlling his father's phone.
He said his father refused to visit him and his grandchildren in Las Vegas. Wen Hou said that whoever controlled his phone refused to answer any calls on his birthday and, instead of thanking Wen Hou for the handmade Chinese noodles he sent as a gift to his father's home in Rancho Cucamonga, he simply texted: “Yes, I got it.”
Wen Hou said he asked family friends to check on his father the next day. Hou said they found a package of noodles sitting at the bus stop. Inside the house, he said they found that all the furniture had been taken away and new paint was put on the interior walls.
His father's cars were not in the garage. Naiping Hou was not found.
The elder Hou was reported missing on May 4 of last year, according to the Sheriff's Department.
Detectives believe someone used Hou's cell phone to impersonate him for more than a month. A lot of corruption was also discovered using his bank account when he disappeared, the ministry said in a written statement.
Hou's older wife was visiting family in China when he was believed to have gone missing, according to his family. While he was abroad, he received a text message on Hou's phone telling him to cancel his flight home, saying that he would join him in Asia.
Although Wen Hou does not know who is responsible for the crimes that may have been committed against his father, he fears that the contractors who did work at Naiping Hou's house earlier this year may have eaten his father or kidnapped him.
Wen Hou, a well-known hedge fund and cryptocurrency investor, works as an investment officer at Coincident Capital.
In 2022, he and his wife awarded $1.1 million in cryptocurrency to USC Keck School of Medicine to support research on heart disease.
Wen Hou said that his parents have lived at home in Rancho Cucamonga for 20 years.
He said his father, who is of Chinese descent, spends his time working as a woodworker and playing pingpong at a local recreation center.
Wen Hou said he last saw his father in March 2025. That month they rented a boat at San Pedro Pier and went on a family fishing trip.
Since his father's disappearance, Wen Hou has created a website to raise awareness of his father's guilt. In it are photos of his father and a photo offering a $250,000 reward for information leading to his father's recovery. There is also a video where he appeals to the public to help him.
Among the photos on this website is one of his father holding a rod after catching a fish.
“The family is sad,” Wen Hou said in the video. “We want him back.”
