Fernando Jauregui Ochoa sold aspiring entrepreneurs something bigger than a food truck. Customers were putting money into the vehicle that was supposed to become their business.
The owner of 8A Food Trucks built an image to match that promise. Ochoa presented himself on social media as a successful Central California businessman while customers entrusted him with deposits that, for some, represented years of savings.
The reality prosecutors eventually established was very different. The Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office said its investigation identified more than 40 victims who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars after paying for custom food trucks that were never built.
Ochoa, 30, of Ceres, has now been convicted of 18 counts of obtaining money by fraud and one count of witness intimidation. Prosecutors also obtained a finding that the fraud exceeded $500,000 and an aggravating factor that he targeted vulnerable victims based on their immigration status.
The Sales Pitch
The district attorney’s office began receiving consumer fraud complaints involving 8A Food Trucks in April 2023. Its Bureau of Investigation, assisted by Ceres Police, then opened a broader criminal investigation.
Customers had been finding Ochoa from well outside the Central Valley.
Los Angeles Times reporting before his arrest documented customers across California who said they had paid substantial sums for trucks or trailers that either never arrived, arrived with serious problems or were later taken back.
Many had spent years working and saving before trying to open businesses of their own.
By the time Ochoa was arrested in April 2024, prosecutors accused him of taking about $993,000 from more than two dozen customers. The investigation continued after his arrest and eventually identified more than 40 victims.
Prosecutors said Ochoa spent customers’ money on drugs, vacations and other personal expenses instead of delivering the custom vehicles they had paid him to build.
One Came Back
Shelly Lopez and her husband, Jesus Avalos, were among the customers whose experience took a particularly strange turn.
The Sacramento couple told the Times they paid Ochoa $37,000 and waited nine months before receiving their trailer in January 2023.
About a week later, Lopez said, Ochoa told them the trailer needed to return to his shop for adjustments. Video she supplied to the newspaper showed a man she identified as Ochoa connecting it to a pickup the following month.
They never saw the trailer again.
Ochoa disputed that account when the Times interviewed him before his arrest. He said the trailer had not been fully paid for, that he retrieved it after being told it required repairs and that he intended to return the couple’s money. Lopez said the money had not been returned.
Other customers described different problems. Some said their vehicles never arrived at all. Others said what they received was so poorly built that they could not use it.
Far From Ceres
The complaints also reached Southern California.
Earlier Times reporting followed a dispute involving San Bernardino restaurant owner Alejandro Gonzalez and a trailer purchased from Ochoa.
After the trailer disappeared, Gonzalez traveled to Ochoa’s Ceres business believing Ochoa had taken it. Gonzalez said he found the business deserted.
Days later, he said, two men arrived at his restaurant’s drive-through and one displayed a gun. Gonzalez and his wife also said they received a threatening voicemail from Ochoa.
Ochoa denied stealing the trailer. He told the Times that he had sent two people to the restaurant over a payment dispute but denied sending them to intimidate the couple.
Gonzalez later made a report to the San Bernardino Police Department concerning the trailer and the encounter at his restaurant.
Other Inland Empire customers were caught in the broader operation. The Ceres Courier reported that victims included residents of San Bernardino and Victorville, including a San Bernardino couple who paid $15,000 for a product they did not receive and a Victorville customer who paid $25,000 toward converting a van into a food truck.
Who He Chose
The completed prosecution established something more specific than a collection of failed transactions.
Prosecutors said Ochoa targeted vulnerable victims based on their immigration status, an aggravating factor included with his conviction.
Some customers had entrusted him with their life savings while trying to establish businesses. Earlier reporting described victims who had worked as farmworkers, cooks, custodians and construction workers before putting their money into trucks and trailers.
District Attorney Jeff Laugero said investigators uncovered dozens of victims who otherwise might not have received justice.
Ochoa was also convicted of witness intimidation and will be ordered to pay restitution.
He is scheduled to return to court Oct. 30, when prosecutors say he will receive a 20-year prison sentence.