An Arizona-based auto mechanic has been hit with a 33-month prison sentence and ordered to pay back $1.37 million to defrauded customers. The U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk handed down the sentence this Tuesday to Andres "Manny" Lopez, 37, for scheming his clients by taking payments without delivering services or products through his company, All Performance Tuning and Diesel Repair LLC. The mechanic's operations, which began in November 2019, included taking money for vehicles, upgrades, and car parts with no intention to fulfill these orders and even involved the damaging of customer vehicles or loaning them out without permission.
A notable incident involved a Missouri customer who paid $45,000 for a Toyota RAV4 for his mother. Lopez fabricated stories about purchasing the vehicle and then concocted various delays, including product recalls, and even went as far as impersonating the general manager of a Florida Toyota dealership to dupe the client's mother. This instance of fraud was just one in a series of deceptions that led to Lopez's indictment in October of 2023. Moreover, the elaborate duplicity continued after his indictment, culminating in defrauding another victim of approximately $567,892, money which he used for personal expenses.
In a statement obtained by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Missouri, one of Lopez's victims described the pattern of deceit: "Promise… then a reason why I cannot meet that promise… then a new promise… then repeat the string (for years)." Lopez pleaded guilty in February at the U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of wire fraud, accepting his role in the fraudulent activities that finally caught up with him.
"For years, Andres Lopez lied to customers to line his own pockets. The lies and manipulation continued even after he had been charged for the crime and released on bond," Special Agent in Charge Chris Crocker of the FBI St. Louis Division stated. These fraudulent business practices certainly caught up with Lopez as he "earned every day of his prison sentence," according to Crocker. The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
