Meals truck builder convicted in $1-million fraud focusing on immigrants

Fernando Jauregui Ochoa had rigorously depicted himself on social media as a reliable and profitable Central California meals truck builder.

His movies drew dozens of aspiring meals truck homeowners, a lot of them immigrants like Ochoa, who entrusted him with their life financial savings in hopes of turning their desires right into a livelihood.

However Stanislaus County prosecutors stated Ochoa, proprietor of 8A Meals Vehicles, turned these desires into a virtually million-dollar fraud scheme.

As an alternative of constructing the vans and trailers he promised, prosecutors stated Ochoa used his clients’ cash for medicine, holidays and different private luxuries.

Ochoa was recognized to flaunt his success on social media, together with posts of him using jet skis and standing by his black Corvette. Some victims suspect he used their cash to supply a Mexican corrido that was posted on YouTube.

On Friday, prosecutors introduced that 30-year-old Ochoa had been convicted of 18 counts of acquiring cash by fraud with an allegation that the full fraud exceeded $500,000. Moreover, he was convicted of 1 depend of witness intimidation and an aggravating issue that he focused susceptible victims based mostly on their immigration standing, based on the Stanislaus County District Lawyer’s Workplace.

Ochoa was additionally ordered to pay restitution and is scheduled to obtain a 20-year jail sentence in October, based on prosecutors.

“This case demonstrates the devastating impression fraud can have on unsuspecting victims,” Dist. Atty. Jeff Laugero stated in a written assertion. “As an alternative, he exploited their belief and vulnerabilities and stole from them.”

The conviction comes two years after Ochoa was charged following a report by The Instances that detailed the plight of his alleged victims. A lot of them had saved cash whereas toiling as farmworkers, cooks, custodians and development staff.

8A Meals Vehicles clients from throughout the state stated the losses had been particularly painful as a result of they got here by the hands of one in all their very own.

In a telephone interview Friday night time, Paulina Quintal, one of many victims, stated lots of the folks he defrauded had been farmworkers, together with some who borrowed cash from household again dwelling in Mexico. She stated no less than one sufferer she is aware of suffered a coronary heart assault after shedding her cash and is wheelchair certain.

She stated Ochoa’s cruelty towards his personal folks is what motivated her to assist different victims and push the authorities to research him.

“I’m a authorized resident, however lots of the folks he stole from had been undocumented,” she stated. “It didn’t matter to him. It broke my coronary heart, and I instructed myself ‘you’re not going to get away with this, you’re not going to make a idiot of your individual folks.’”

Quintal and her husband, Alejandro Gonzalez, had been compelled to shut their restaurant — Mi Casita Purepecha — in San Bernardino after receiving threats that they imagine got here from Ochoa.

The parking zone gates are locked at Mi Casita Purepecha restaurant in San Bernardino which closed in 2024.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Instances)

The threats, they alleged, got here in early 2024 following a dispute with Ochoa over funds and possession of a trailer that they had bought from him.

After their trailer went lacking, Gonzalez drove to Ochoa’s enterprise in Ceres, Calif., believing he had taken it. However when he arrived, the enterprise was abandoned.

Days later, he stated, two males pulled as much as the drive-thru and one of many males brandished a gun. The couple later claimed they bought a threatening voicemail from Ochoa.

In an interview with The Instances, Ochoa denied stealing the trailers and stated he despatched two folks to the restaurant to deal with fee issues however to not intimidate the couple.

Gonzalez later filed a report with the San Bernardino Police Division over the theft and the run-in at his restaurant. Quintal stated the case stays open.

In lawsuits and interviews, former purchasers accused Ochoa and his firm of refusing to return their partial or full funds once they didn’t ship the vans and trailers they ordered. Others alleged that they obtained autos so poorly constructed that they couldn’t be used. And a few have accused Ochoa of taking again trailers they’d bought from him.

All instructed, 15 alleged victims claimed greater than $475,000 in losses, based on a Instances evaluation.

Prosecutors stated the investigation into Ochoa started in April 2023, after the District Lawyer’s Bureau of Investigation obtained a number of complaints about fraud associated to Ochoa’s 8A Meals Vehicles firm.

In all, prosecutors stated greater than 40 victims had been defrauded of a whole bunch of hundreds of {dollars}. Ochoa was arrested on April 16, 2024 and charged the following day.

On the time, prosecutors stated he had defrauded about 28 victims and that the fraud totaled about $993,000. Ochoa is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 30.

Quintal stated she plans to attend his sentencing and appears ahead to going through him to let him know the hurt he prompted.

“I’m pleased he’s going to pay,” she stated. “Twenty years is sufficient time for him to consider the hurt he prompted folks.”