Dozens of aspiring entrepreneurs hoping to own their own food trucks and build businesses lost nearly $1 million in a sprawling central California fraud scheme, prosecutors say.
Fernando Jauregui Ochoa, a 30-year-old Ceres man, operated 8A Food Trucks, a business that promised customers custom-built food trucks and trailers.
Many of the customers were immigrants who had spent years saving money to start businesses of their own, according to reporting by the Los Angeles Times. They included farmworkers, cooks, custodians and construction workers, some of whom entrusted Ochoa with what amounted to their entire life savings…