Hoodwinked Portsmouth, NH Marketing Firm Gets Restitution

A California man pleaded guilty to taking a payment of nearly $37,000 to build a specially designed ice cream truck for a Portsmouth marketing company but never delivered.

The company called TH vetted three companies as part of their campaign they created to introduce their client's ice cream in the San Francisco area in 2019, according to acting District of New Hampshire United States Attorney John J. Farley. Jesse Hernandez, 58, of Los Angeles and his company Mobie Experiential Trucks was the low bidder for the truck after a slide presentation for TH Marketing and hired by TH Marketing.

Hernandez later admitted his presentation was made up of images from other companies to misrepresent his experience and work and he never intended to deliver a completed truck, according to Farley.

Mobie signed a contract in mid-June 2019 to complete the truck by July 9, according to Farley, but Hernandez wanted full payment of $36,941 before he would deliver the work. When TH staff flew to California to get the truck Hernandez would not respond to messages to arrangements for pick up.

Hernandez later told federal investigators he received the payment, deposited the funds and spent them on purposes unrelated to the truck.

Hernandez will pay restitution to TH in the amount of $46,615.29 and be sentenced in March, 2022.

“Fraudsters can use a host of different methods to steal from their victims and we all must remain vigilant to protect ourselves from scammers,” Farley said in a statement. “This defendant’s fraud scheme used lies and misrepresentations to defraud a New Hampshire company out of thousands of dollars. Thanks to the hard work of the FBI, this schemer has been held responsible for his criminal conduct.”

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNH