The couple are alleged to have defrauded multiple benefits programs. In one instance described in court documents, Fuentes, working for the city’s Human Services Agency as a senior eligibility worker, approved Badillo’s application for benefits without disclosing their relationship. Badillo reported $1,000 in monthly income with no assets, property or vehicles, a Human Services Agency investigator wrote in an affidavit.
While receiving public benefits, Fuentes and Badillo’s three tow truck companies generated over $2 million in gross annual income, they own four properties in San Francisco, and last year they bought a Lamborghini valued at over $280,000, according to court documents.
The criminal case has not been resolved.
“It’s still pending, all the facts are still being ascertained. You know, there’s a lot of discovery, there’s a lot of dynamics at play here, and I think people need to keep an open mind,” said Allen Sawyer, an attorney representing Badillo in the case.
An attorney representing Fuentes did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
An employee for a phone dispatch service that takes calls for Auto Towing said Tuesday that the company had been dissolved.
Chiu said he had heard that the company had closed but added “We don’t know anything for sure.”
Debarment proceedings have become more frequent, Chiu said, after legislation adopted in recent years has “made it easier for the city to suspend contractors accused of crimes relevant to their ability to receive city funding and gave us the power to move forward a bit more expeditiously.”
During the fiscal year that ended in June, the city attorney’s office issued suspension orders or submitted requests to debar 29 individuals or entities — compared with 11 suspensions or debarments in the prior three years, according to the office.
