A Modesto man who expanded his food truck business into San Bernardino County has been convicted of fleecing dozens of people out of more than $1 million in a fraudulent scheme in which he took payments to build food trucks and trailers he failed to deliver.
Fernando Jauregui Ochoa, 30, pleaded no contest to 18 felony counts of obtaining money by false pretenses and an additional count of dissuading a witness during a pretrial hearing on Wednesday, Aug. 26 in Stanislaus County Superior Court.
He also admitted to an enhancement alleging he committed two or more felonies involving losses exceeding $500,000, as well as an aggravated circumstance of targeting undocumented immigrants because of their reluctance to contact law enforcement, Deputy District Attorney Fawn Smolak said.
Additionally, Ochoa was convicted of a special circumstance allegation of trying to dissuade a witness from cooperating with law enforcement by threatening her with violence, Smolak said.
Ochoa, who faces 20 years in state prison under the terms of his plea agreement, will next appear in court on Oct. 30 for sentencing. A no-contest plea is an admission of guilt, but cannot be used against a defendant in civil court.
Although Ochoa is alleged to have also defrauded at least three San Bernardino County residents out of $40,000, collectively, in food truck transactions, he was not charged or prosecuted in any of those cases in Stanislaus County, Smolak said.
Ochoa, owner of Ceres-based 8A Food Truck Inc. and known across the Central Valley as “the taco truck guy,” was arrested in 2024 after customers accused him of taking deposits for food trucks and trailers he failed to deliver.
Stanislaus County prosecutors identified 45 victims in an amended criminal complaint filed in October 2025, alleging crimes committed from 2020 to 2024. All were from the Central Valley, Bay Area and surrounding communities, Smolak said. The alleged losses exceeded $1 million, they said.
Before his arrest in February 2024, Ochoa told the Southern California News Group in an email that his company was experiencing delays in completing projects on time, and that he couldn’t provide refunds because his customers’ money had already been “poured into the projects.” He said at the time he was “taking action to repay his dissatisfied customers.”
Ochoa said he had recently moved to the San Bernardino area to do business, and was dividing his time between Northern California and San Bernardino County, where he was expanding his business operations.
In San Bernardino, Alejandro Gonzalez and Paulina Quintal said they paid Ochoa $15,000 for a food-service trailer. Although he briefly delivered a trailer to their home, they said he took it back several days later and never returned it. The couple said the loss contributed to the closure of their San Bernardino restaurant.
And a Victorville man who asked to not be identified alleged he paid nearly $25,000 to have a van converted into a food truck but received nothing.
San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson said his office did not receive any case information from either the San Bernardino Police Department or San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, which has jurisdiction in Victorville.
“We have no submissions of investigations on that guy,” Anderson said, referring to Ochoa. He said his office also never received any communication from Stanislaus County authorities regarding the San Bernardino County cases.
In the Central Valley, Salinas residents Sebastian Delgado and his wife, Norma Estevez, said they paid Ochoa $90,000 for two 16-foot food-service trailers. They said they repeatedly received the runaround before visiting Ochoa’s business in Ceres hoping to see their trailers, including one Ochoa had claimed was completed. They said neither trailer was delivered.
Ochoa’s ex-wife, Alma Macias, told the Southern California News Group in 2024 that Ochoa emigrated from Colima, Mexico, to the U.S. on a tourist visa. The two married in 2018, and Ochoa started 8A Food Truck Inc. in 2023.
Asked if Ochoa faces the threat of deportation after he is released from prison, all Smolak would say is that Ochoa’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Morgan Broshears, made an “immigration neutral resolution” offer to prosecutors, which Ochoa rejected, and that Judge Ruben Villalobos warned Ochoa at the time of his plea that it “could potentially have immigration consequences.”
Ochoa remains in custody at the Stanislaus County Public Safety Center in Modesto, where he is being held without bail.