‘All hell broke loose’: Ocala businessman accused of fraud, grand theft

OCALA, Fla. (WCJB) - A boat trailer businessman in Ocala is accused of scamming people out of thousands of dollars, and he’s now in the Marion County Jail.

“I found the trailers and I Air Tagged them, Air Tagged every single one,” shared Investor Brandon Mardenfeld.

Mardenfeld says 39-year-old Carlos Gonzalez scammed him out of $65,000.

“Air Tags, they only let me know if they’re moved when they connect to another device, and as soon as that happened, that’s when all hell broke loose,” Mardenfeld said.

Gonzalez owns AlumaTrek Inc. and National Trailers.

“When you’re investing that kind of money in a scenario like this you expect losses, but you don’t expect someone to steal from you. So it took me back a little bit,” shared Mardenfeld.

Mardenfeld decided to invest when Gonzalez claimed his business was having financial problems. Mardenfeld had his attorney draft an agreement stating he owned all of the materials and Gonzalez’s job was to produce all of the trailers. The contract states if the material is removed it’s punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

“Unfortunately he’s a really talented trailer builder. I don’t know if it was drugs, if it was women, or whatever the scenario may be, he just couldn’t get himself together,” said Mardenfeld.

In April, he says he gave Gonzalez raw materials to make three trailers and he did, but when Mardenfeld provided materials for 15 more trailers, Gonzalez never built them.

“I don’t want to see anybody else be taken advantage of,” shared Scott Pederson who also paid for a trailer he never received.

Pederson says he lost a little more than $7,000.

“How he got away with it for so long, is someone would come in like I did, want a custom trailer built, he’d run the amount up to just under $8,000 to keep it civil,” Pederson said.

TV20 drove by the address Gonzalez gave Mardenfeld and Pederson. Workers there said AlumaTrek moved out a long time ago, and a quick Google search of AlumaTrek Trailers will take you to a roofing company’s building.

Both Mardenfeld and Pederson say they hope Gonzalez doesn’t get the chance to scam anyone else. If you believe you may be impacted by this business owner, you’re encouraged to reach out to the Ocala Police Department.

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