A 36-year-old Arizona car technician named Andres “Manny” Lopez has entered a guilty plea to cheating clients out of more than $1.4 million in many states, including Missouri.
From November 2019 until July 2023, Lopez carried out fraudulent acts while running All Performance Tuning and Diesel Repair LLC. Lopez accepted payments from clients throughout this time for components, services, and car enhancements that he had no intention of performing.
His clients were left without the services they paid for since he utilized the money for personal purposes rather than completing the work as agreed.
In addition to neglecting to finish repairs and improvements, Lopez’s fraudulent scheme includes causing damage to the cars under his supervision.
He took customers’ cars in for what they thought were necessary repairs or upgrades, but instead of fixing them, he either damaged or ignored them.
Lopez further betrayed the confidence of people who had trusted him with their cars by lending them out without their consent on multiple occasions.
Lopez also deceived certain clients by taking money up front in exchange for assisting them in finding and buying cars.
He would make fraudulent claims about sourcing and buying cars for these deals, but he would never follow through. Lopez left his consumers in limbo by making up explanations for the delays rather than completing the promised items.
He pocketed the money and avoided taking responsibility for the cars he was meant to buy by using the money these consumers paid him for personal purposes.
One especially heinous instance involves a Missouri victim who sent Lopez $45,000 to buy a Toyota RAV4.
Following the payment, Lopez persisted in offering progressively more unbelievable justifications for why the car had not been delivered. Lopez even went so far as to pose as a manager of a Toyota dealership in order to further mislead the victim’s family.
He made up a story to persuade the victim’s mother that the car was delayed for no fault of his own.
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Lopez persisted in his illegal actions even after being charged with wire fraud in October 2023. He conned another victim out of over $560,000 after the indictment, demonstrating that his dishonest activity continued long after the authorities had begun looking into his operations.
In the U.S. District Court in St. Louis, Lopez entered a guilty plea to one count of wire fraud. The FBI looked into the case, and his sentence is set for May 9.
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The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman.
Numerous people who trusted Lopez with their hard-earned money were impacted by the lengthy deception that came to an end with this guilty plea.
