{"id":398102,"date":"2026-07-14T16:59:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T16:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/398102\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T16:59:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T16:59:22","slug":"california-man-wanted-on-theft-fraud-charges-in-west-feliciana-parish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/398102\/","title":{"rendered":"California man wanted on theft, fraud charges in West Feliciana Parish"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">BATON ROUGE, La. (<a data-ylk=\"slk:Louisiana First;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.louisianafirstnews.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Louisiana First<\/a>) \u2014 A California man is wanted in connection with an alleged fraud scheme that cost a victim more than $300,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The St. Francisville Police Department (SFPD) said an active arrest warrant has been issued for Renqing Chen, 39, of Pittsburg, California.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">According to police, the case began on June 10, 2026, when a victim reported being defrauded over several months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Police said the victim began receiving phone calls in 2025 from someone claiming to be an employee with the Attorney General&#8217;s Office. The caller said there was a warrant for the victim&#8217;s arrest. They also claimed the Department of the Treasury was going to seize his assets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">SFPD said the victim was instructed to move money out of his accounts by purchasing bitcoin and gold. The victim was then directed to transfer the gold to a courier as part of the scam.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Police estimate the victim&#8217;s total financial loss exceeded $300,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Chen is wanted on charges including:<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Unlawful production, manufacturing, distribution or possession of fraudulent identification documents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The St. Francisville Police Department is asking anyone with information about Chen&#8217;s whereabouts to call 225-635-4177.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Police also remind everyone that legitimate law enforcement agencies will never ask people to pay with bitcoin, gold, silver or other assets to resolve a legal matter. If you think you&#8217;ve been targeted by a similar scam, contact your local police.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"A California man is wanted in connection with an alleged fraud scheme that cost a victim more than $300,000.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/wvla_baton_rouge_articles_384\/2af05a1873619b0baa299e61ba0ba0e5.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>A California man is wanted in connection with an alleged fraud scheme that cost a victim more than $300,000.<\/p>\n<p>Latest News<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Louisiana First News.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.louisianafirstnews.com\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Louisiana First News.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) \u2014 A California man is wanted in connection with an alleged fraud scheme&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[57823,7,9,8,159882,29796,7912,159883,4736,159881],"class_list":["post-398102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-arrest-warrant","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-department-of-the-treasury","tag-fraud-scheme","tag-pittsburg","tag-renqing-chen","tag-sfpd","tag-st-francisville-police-department"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}