Community
Ventura County Crime Stoppers will pay up to $1,000 reward for information, which leads to the arrest and criminal complaint against the person(s) responsible for this crime. The caller may remain anonymous. The call is not recorded. Call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
Media Release: Financial Elder Abuse Suspect Arrested
| Nature of Incident: | Financial Elder Abuse Suspect Arrested | ||||
| Report Number: | 25-147741 | ||||
| Location: | 5300 Block Via Jacinto, Thousand Oaks, CA | ||||
| Date & Time: | June 2024 through August 2025 | ||||
| Unit(s) Responsible: | East County Investigations Bureau – Financial Crimes Unit, FBI, and Ventura County Fraud Working Group |
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| (S)uspects, (V)ictims, (P)arty, (D)ecedent |
City of Residence |
Age | |||
| (S) William Ly |
Simi Valley |
26 |
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| Narrative: | |||||
| In November 2025, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office East County Investigations Bureau received a report of a financial theft from an elder person. Further investigation revealed (S) William Ly was introduced to the 89-year-old victim through a mutual friend at a local breakfast club gathering of retired gentlemen. Ly befriended the victim and assisted the victim with optimizing his phone, including resetting the password for the victim’s Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange account. Ly maintained a friendship with the victim from June 2024 to September 2025, at which point the victim discovered he was missing a substantial amount of money. The missing funds had been transferred as cryptocurrency from the victim’s Coinbase account which was set up to debit directly from the victim’s bank account. Ventura County Sheriff’s Office financial crimes detectives, working in collaboration with the FBI and the Ventura County Fraud Working Group, obtained financial records related to the theft. The related records indicated more than $97,000 was stolen from the victim in more than 80 separate transactions which were deposited into accounts and cryptocurrency wallets belonging to Ly. On 08/04/2026, Ly was arrested for PC 368(d)(1) – Financial Elder Abuse, PC 487(a) – Grand Theft, and PC 530.5(a) – Identity Theft. It is possible there may be additional victims who have not yet been identified. If you believe you may have been a victim or have information that could assist investigators, you are encouraged to contact Sr. Deputy Andrew Van Gundy at 805-494-8231. The Ventura County Fraud Working Group is a collaborative effort aimed at reducing fraud in Ventura County through education and outreach, and combat crime through enforcement action, asset recovery, and prosecution. The Ventura County Fraud Working Group is made up of detectives from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI, Oxnard Police Department, Ventura Police Department, Ventura County District Attorney’s Office, Santa Barbara District Attorney’s Office, Secret Service, and the Internal Revenue Service. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank members of the public for their on-going support and due diligence in providing information to assist our agency in solving crimes. We are better at what we do because of our community partnerships. Join us in the fight on crime by following us on Twitter @ThousandOaksPD, Facebook @ Thousand Oaks Police Department, Instagram @ThousandOaksPD, and with Nixle by texting your zip code to 888777 to receive local law enforcement and public safety alerts and advisories |
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| Prepared by: | Senior Deputy Andrew Van Gundy | ||||
| News Release Date: | 08/10/2026 | ||||
| Media Follow-Up Contact: | Senior Deputy Andrew Van Gundy 805-494-8231 [email protected] |
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| Approved by: Booking Photo Release: |
Captain Albert Ramirez YES NO X |
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Ventura County Crime Stoppers will pay up to $1,000 reward for information, which leads to the arrest and criminal complaint against the person(s) responsible for this crime. The caller may remain anonymous. The call is not recorded. Call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
Address/Location
Ventura County Sheriff's Office
800 S Victoria Ave
Ventura, CA 93003
Contact
Emergency: 9-1-1
Non-emergencies: 805-654-9511