EX-FOOD TRUCK MAKERS ORDERED TO PAY $4.5 MILLION IN FRAUD CASE

Two men accused of ripping off clients who contracted them to build custom food trucks amid an industry boom in Colorado have been ordered to pay a combined $4.5 million in penalties in the case.

Larry Perez and Rudy Martinez were subject to a preliminary injunction in December barring them from building or selling food trucks in the state after multiple customers accused them of underdelivering or failing to deliver on promised work.

This week, a Denver District Court judge ordered Perez to pay $3 million and Martinez to pay $1.5 million to resolve the case, according to a news release from the office of Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser.

Perez and Martinez fabricated and sold food trucks under the company names Denver Custom Food Trucks and Brothers Custom Food Trucks, state officials say.

On multiple occasions, they accepted deposits from customers promising to build them trucks with new equipment and fixtures that would pass necessary inspections.

They often took much longer to deliver trucks than promised and delivered faulty trucks that had old equipment inside and could not pass Denver Fire Department safety inspections, according to the state. In some cases, officials say they failed to deliver trucks altogether.

Neither man was a licensed automotive dealer, and the two were known to “skip title” while in the business of building and selling trucks in order to avoid government attention, the attorney general’s office says.