Federal agents this morning raided Specialty Towing at 2045 Oakdale Ave. in Bayview. City Attorney David Chiu suspended Specialty Towing and its affiliated companies last month from receiving city contracts due to alleged predatory behavior.
“I can confirm that the FBI conducted court-authorized law enforcement activity in the 2000 block of Oakdale Avenue in San Francisco this morning,” according to an email from FBI spokesperson Cameron Polan. “We are unable to provide additional information at this time.”
The United States Department of Justice announced insurance-fraud and money-laundering charges this afternoon against the towing company’s co-owner, Jose Badillo, and a woman named Jessica Najarro. The two are accused of submitting a fraudulent insurance claim on a wrecked car that Badillo purchased in June 2019; Najarro allegedly claimed she had been involved in an accident in the car, which was inoperable.
Najarro received an insurance reimbursement check for just over $34,000; it was subsequently deposited in Badillo’s bank account.
Specialty Towing, Jose’s Towing, and Auto Towing are co-owned by Badillo and Abigail Fuentes. The City Attorney’s July proceedings came after allegations last August that Auto Towing trucks removed several cars from a bank’s parking lot in the Portola neighborhood without the property owner’s permission.
The cars were then brought to a Specialty Towing’s lot located on Oakdale Avenue, instead of Auto Towing’s 1229 Underwood Ave. location. Vehicle owners, many of them Spanish- or Chinese-speakers, struggled to locate and retrieve their cars.
In February this year, Fuentes and Badillo were additionally accused of fraud. Badillo had reported in a welfare application that his monthly income was $1,000, and that he had no assets, property or vehicles. But a welfare fraud investigator found his businesses had more than $2 million in gross revenue every year back to 2018. The couple was able to “purchase two commercial and two residential properties, several vehicles and vessels (boats)” with the income.
“The most recent purchase, 4/24/23, was a 2023 Lamborghini valued at $288,786,” the investigator wrote.
Fuentes and Badillo are a couple who have children together. In the city’s welfare fraud case, an investigator alleged that Fuentes was hired as a San Francisco Human Services Agency eligibility worker, and approved Badillo’s fraudulent application for welfare benefits without disclosing their relationship.
Video posted to X by NBC Bay Area reporter Sergio Quintana shows FBI agents gathered outside the business on Thursday morning. Agents reportedly used a flash grenade when conducting a search, and video showed them in military-style fatigues next to an armored truck with flashing sirens.
A security guard at Nor-Cal Training Academy and employees at Contractor Depot Plus and Sunbelt Rentals said there were FBI agents and police outside the business as early as 7 a.m. No neighboring business owners contacted by Mission Local, including Specialty Towing’s next-door neighbor Sunbelt Rentals, said they had ever interacted with the company’s owners.
A call to Specialty Towing was forwarded to a dispatcher who usually only fields calls after-hours.
Badillo and Najarro were arrested in San Francisco this morning, and released on a $50,000 bond at their initial court appearances. Both defendants are next scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court on Aug. 12, at 10:30 a.m., before Magistrate Judge Lisa J. Cisneros for arraignment and identification of counsel.
Always great research by Joe. Keep up the great work!
Keep up the great work!
Joe Eskanazi is a locally known & awarded reporter/writer. He does thorough research. His reporting is valid. He is also now an Excelsior resident! Proud he chose this neighborhood. 👌