Overview
- Shaohua Sun, 39, and Yanwen Gu, 40, pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy to commit elder abuse in a Ventura County case.
- Under their plea deals, each faces up to four years in custody plus two years of formal probation, and both remain jailed on $50,000 bail.
- Sun surrendered $25,000 in restitution before pleading, and sentencing hearings are scheduled.
- The scheme began March 18 with a text about a $350 Apple Store charge, followed by calls that falsely tied the victim’s credit union account to child sexual abuse material in Canada to force a $25,000 cash handoff to a fake undercover officer.
- Detectives arranged a second meeting on March 19 that led to Gu’s arrest after she took what she believed was $50,000, and officers also arrested Sun as an alleged lookout while investigators point to links with a larger international fraud network.