Mexican charged in S.A. in $30M visa case

A businessman who ran for governor of a central Mexican state has been arrested on federal charges in San Antonio over his alleged involvement in a $30 million fraud scheme related to visas reserved for entrepreneurs.

Juan Carlos Martinez Cecias Rodriguez, 51, has various business ventures and lost an election this year to be governor of Queretaro.

Martinez was charged in San Antonio over a business venture that involved Karina Hernandez, 41, who was facing fraud charges in another case.

Martinez is the owner of Mobile Coatings Management, or MCM, and part owner and president of Uberwurx, which does business as Rhinopro Truck Outfitters, a sprayon truck bed liner and truck accessory company.

Hernandez is part owner of Texas Franchise and Business Consulting, which mainly targets and markets to Mexican nationals interested in starting businesses in Texas. Both were arrested this week, prosecutors said.

Court records show Martinez marketed himself and Uberwurx to investors to gain E-2 visas for legal entry into the U.S. The visas allow eligible foreign nationals to temporarily stay in the United States to run a business if they make a “substantial” investment in it and meet other qualifications.

According to court records, Martinez worked with Hernandez to market and sell the Uberwurx franchise to Mexican national investors. But Martinez’s company, MCM, managed the Uberwurx franchises instead of the investors doing so, in violation of E-2 visa requirements, documents show.

Records show Martinez instructed investors to omit from their E-2 visa applications the fact that MCM managed the franchises.

Martinez and Hernandez are accused of perpetrating the scheme on at least 120 investors between January 2017 and December 2021, with a loss of more than $30 million.

Hernandez was indicted in April in another scheme that allegedly bilked eight Mexican investors to contribute more than $1 million toward a chain of Mexican restaurants called “Las Quesadillas.”