American First Finance LLC v. Mendoza Garcia

I. BACKGROUND

24 Plaintiff filed this case on January 26, 2023, against Defendant Fernando Mendoza Garcia, 25 an individual doing business under the names of the following sole proprietorships: FMG 26 Wireless, FM Wireless, and Aviliar Everything.1 (ECF No. 1). The complaint alleges that 27 1 Plaintiff also sued Does 1-25. However, because Plaintiff has not identified and substituted any Doe Defendant, they are not at issue here. Defendant entered into a retail installment sales contract (RISC) program agreement with Plaintiff on October 27, 2021. Under this agreement, Defendant “would engage in credit sales of smartphones, computer accessories, video gaming systems, and other electronics products to his customers, and such consumer credit sale transactions would subsequently be assigned to, and purchased by, Plaintiff.” 5 However, Defendant engaged in a fraudulent scheme by promising $100 for customers to 6 take out RISC and offering to pay off the amount owed under the RISC. Defendant made a profit 7 from selling and assigning the RISCs to Plaintiff, while leaving the customers liable for the 8 amounts due under the RISCs and without giving the customer any…