After an extended investigation, federal brokers descended on a Northern California towing firm final week to raid a towing firm accused of unlawful operations in San Fransisco.
San Francisco’s ABC 7 experiences that the FBI raided Specialty Towing on August 8. Witnesses within the space advised the information station brokers and native enforcement have been outdoors the corporate’s workplace staging for over two hours earlier than the raid.
The raid is the results of a months-long investigation. In line with ABC 7, Speciality Towing has been a menace within the metropolis for some time. Earlier this yr, the workplace of San Francisco Metropolis Legal professional David Chiu introduced that it was investigating the corporate:
Town suspended Auto Towing and several other of its associates, together with Specialty Towing, from doing enterprise with the town. Chiu mentioned then:
“We supplied sufficient proof such that Auto Towing may very well be completely barred from doing enterprise with the town for the subsequent 5 years,” mentioned Chiu.
The corporate has a historical past of partaking in unlawful towing as properly. In April, the corporate was caught on digicam trying to tow a automotive that was sitting in visitors. Thoughts you, this was after the town suspended the corporate’s license, supposedly stopping them from doing enterprise within the metropolis. They clearly didn’t care.
Now it appears the corporate could also be performed for good. The Division Of Justice confirmed to ABC that the corporate’s homeowners are dealing with quite a few expenses, together with cash laundering:
After the raid, the U.S. Division of Justice confirmed to ABC7 Information that Jose Badillo and Jessica Najarro who owned or operated Jose’s Towing and Auto Towing appeared in federal courtroom Thursday to face mail fraud, wire fraud, and cash laundering expenses associated to an alleged scheme to defraud an auto insurance coverage firm. Including the couple “conspired to defraud an insurance coverage firm by submitting a fraudulent insurance coverage declare on a wrecked automotive.”
The indictment says Badillo purchased a automotive, mentioned it was broken and undriveable.
In line with the DOJ, Najarro “obtained an insurance coverage coverage on, and later took title to, the automotive earlier than falsely reporting to the insurance coverage firm in July 2019 that she had been in a single-car accident in San Francisco.”
The insurance coverage firm authorized the declare and despatched a test for $34,037.48
If convicted, each Badillo and Najarro face 20 years in jail and a $250,000 advantageous.