$1 million bond set for Fresno restaurant owner charged in serial arson case
A Fresno judge ordered restaurant owner Bobby Salazar to be released and post a $1 million bond on Friday after the restaurateur was accused of hiring an outlaw biker to set ablaze a failing eatery.
The 63-year-old was arrested Tuesday and has since been charged with three felonies, including arson of a commercial building, arson in furtherance of a felony and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Salazar, who continued to be represented by a public defender as of Friday, has denied the charges.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara A. McAuliffe said Salazar was to be released as soon as possible and could post the bond later. He will be placed on an ankle monitor to track his whereabouts until he posts the bond, but the monitor would not be in place until after the long Labor Day weekend.
Salazar was ordered by the judge to return to the court house for the monitor on Tuesday.
Federal investigators allege Salazar hired Thomas Qualls, the president of the Screamin-Demons Motorcycle Club from Sanger, to burn down the Bobby Salazar’s Mexican Restaurant on Blackstone Avenue north of Princeton Avenue. The insurance policy on the burned structure paid out almost $1 million, court records show.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Veneman-Hughes argued against Salazar’s release, saying he is a flight risk. He noted Salazar has an estimated $6 million in assets and said, at age 63, Salazar would have more reason to flee.
If found guilty, Salazar faces a minimum of five years in prison and maximum of 20 years for commercial arson. He also faces 10 years in prison for arson in furtherance of a felony, and the gun charge also carries a potential five-year sentence.
“This is the rest of his life, the case is,” Veneman-Hughes said during the hearing.
He also said Salazar has connections to known criminals who he could speak to in-person or on disposable cellphones to communicate in ways the government could not track if he was released. One potential witness had already reported intimidation by others connected to Salazar, Veneman-Hughes said.
Salazar has been in a jail cell since he was arrested Tuesday and the prosecutors came to the hearing with no jailhouse phone calls or other proof Salazar had asked anyone to approach a witness, according to his public defender, Kara Ottervanger.
She also told the judge that Salazar has deep roots in Fresno, making him an unlikely flight risk.
“He has nowhere else to go,” Ottervanger said during the hearing.
Salazar was given a number of conditions, including house arrest outside of approved trips like work, court hearings and other tasks that can’t be carried out by someone else. He agreed to the conditions.
“I want to be able to go to work,” Salazar said during the hearing.
The Bobby Salazar’s Mexican Restaurant insurance payout
Unaccounted for payments were a point of contention at Friday’s hearing.
Veneman-Hughes said Salazar made about $240,000 in payments the government has not been able to track down that were made after getting the insurance payout. He said it suggests Salazar was moving money around to hide it. Salazar also had cryptocurrency he had not disclosed to investigators, Veneman-Hughes said. He believed the defendant was lying about his assets.
Ottervanger said the money was spent in the normal course of business to pay down a loan, bills and payroll for hundreds of employees. She also said Salazar was required to list all of his assets from jail without his business records or cellphone, and simply forgot the cryptocurrency of no more than $4,000.
The alleged arson of Bobby Salazar’s Mexican Restaurant
The 2839 N. Blackstone Ave. location of Bobby Salazar’s burned on April 2, 2024. Prosecutors allege Qualls carried out the plan with an unnamed woman and the two had conversations over text message discussing the fire and money. The 40-year-old was arrested the following month and remained in Fresno County Jail on Friday.
The eatery had been operated by a franchisee but had closed in January 2024. Salazar had begun to use it as storage for restaurant equipment the following month, according to court records.
Two people were caught on surveillance video inside lighting a fire using gas cans about 1:30 a.m. on the night of the fire, court records show.
Previous criminal history of Bobby Salazar
The well-known restaurateur was convicted in 1997 of insurance fraud and being in possession of stolen property after Salazar pleaded no contest. Prosecutors said he asked someone to steal his truck the previous year before leaving the keys in it. He later reported it stolen and filed an insurance claim on it, according to Bee archives.
Veneman-Hughes said Friday that charge may have later been reduced to a misdemeanor, but he could not say for certain. Salazar was sentenced to a year in a work-furlough program and 600 hours of community service.
In the complaint for the new charges, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent tied Salazar to other incidents in which they allege he used Molotov cocktails or set fire to cars amid disputes with ex-employees and others.
This story was originally published August 29, 2025 at 5:25 PM.
