A 29-year-old towing company owner was sentenced to five years in federal prison for orchestrating a plan to set the trucks of four rival companies on fire, along with two years for submitting fraudulent auto insurance claims, with state welfare fraud charges pending.
As Bay City News reports, Jose Vicente Badillo, 29, owner of San Francisco-based companies Auto Towing and Specialty Towing was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison on February 12 after pleading guilty to committing arson. As Mission Local reports, Badillo carried out a plan between April and October 2023 in which he conspired with others to set fire to six different tow trucks owned by four competitors in San Francisco and East Palo Alto, according to court documents.
Bay City News writes that Badillo’s plan was in retaliation to perceived wrongdoings by his rivals as well as an effort to drive more customers to his businesses. Additionally, Badillo was sentenced in a separate federal case on February 13 to 27 months in prison for conspiring to submit false auto insurance claims, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses, between 2017 and 2021 approximately, which he’ll serve at the same time as the arson sentence, per Bay City News.
Mission Local reports that the two cases are part of a long roster of cases opened against Badillo in recent years. In 2023, the San Francisco district attorney charged Badillo on counts of welfare fraud, perjury, and grand theft for allegedly lying on his welfare application. Per Mission Local, while Badillo’s companies were generating $2 million per year in revenue, which went toward a $250,000 Lamborghini and several other large purchases, Badillo and his partner managed to receive full Medi-Cal, CalFresh, and CalWORKS benefits.
Additionally, Mission Local reports that Badillo has been prohibited from working with the city of San Francisco since February 2024 after it was discovered that someone from one of Badillo’s companies installed fake “no parking” signs in a bank parking lot in 2023 and illegally towed cars. Last Fall, Mission Local reported that Badillo was reportedly still working with the city under a different business name despite no longer having a permit.
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Leanne Maxwell
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