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…