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An auto mechanic was sentenced to 33 months in prison and ordered to repay $1.37 million to his victims for defrauding a Missouri customer, among others, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Missouri announced last week.

Beginning in November 2019, Andres “Manny” Lopez, 37, defrauded customers of his Arizona company, All Performance Tuning and Diesel Repair LLC, by accepting money for vehicles, vehicle upgrades and parts with no intention of performing the work or turning over the vehicles. He also damaged some customer vehicles and loaned vehicles to others without the owners’ consent, the U.S. Attorney’s Office alleges.

A Missouri victim who wanted to buy a vehicle for his mother wired Lopez $45,000 for a Toyota RAV4. Lopez falsely claimed that he’d bought the vehicle, and then provided a series of false excuses about why it was not being delivered. Lopez claimed delivery delays were due to product recalls and even impersonated the general manager of a Florida Toyota dealership in text messages to the client’s mother.

After Lopez was indicted in October of 2023, he defrauded another victim out of approximately $567,892.

Lopez allegedly used the money for personal expenses.

In a letter to the court, one victim spoke of Lopez’s pattern: “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 U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of wire fraud.

“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,” said Special Agent in Charge Chris Crocker of the FBI St. Louis Division. “Today, Lopez earned every day of his prison sentence for victimizing people with his fraudulent business practices.”

The FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman is prosecuting case.

Source: the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Missouri