Two Utah men federally charged after getting $40 million through fraud scheme

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Two Utah men federally charged after getting $40 million through ****** scheme

SALT LAKE CITY

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

— A federal grand jury has returned a true bill of indictment on two Utah men who stand accused of running a multi-million dollar ****** investment scheme.

Aaron Wagner and Michael Mains, are reported to have run a scheme meant to induce lenders to send millions of dollars to entities controlled by the two men.

Meet ‘Archie’: How the Utah Hockey Club is helping raise a future service dog

Both Wagner and Mains are charged with the following:

Four counts of wire ******.

One count of *********** to commit wire ******.

Six counts of transactional money laundering.

Five counts of money laundering — concealment of wire ****** proceeds.

According to federal indictment documents, both Mains and Wagner are accused of siphoning money from investors to their own accounts. The funds given to them by investors were supposed to go to the opening of several chain restaurants. Included in that list of restaurants were the following:

10 ****** Bird restaurants

10 Kokonut Island Grill restaurants

10 Hello Sugar restaurants

“Wagner represented to lenders or investors that the funds would be used for developing certain restaurants, but in fact intended to use the funds for personal expenses or investments, or to prop up projects for other investor groups (which also included himself as an investor). In all, he brought in more than $40 million from investors,” court documents state.

Documents also say that the two men “diverted $9 million to their own purposes. For instance, they used that money instead to fund down payments to purchase a $4 million second home for Wagner in Scottsdale, Arizona, an $8 million personal airplane for Wagner and Mains, a $4.5million commercial property to be developed into a nightclub called ‘SWAGS’, and an $8 million real estate property in Missoula, Montana.”

Should the two be convicted, they would forfeit an SR22 aircraft, an $8 million real estate property in Missoula, property in Alpine, and property in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Charges are allegations only. All arrested persons are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Utah #men #federally #charged #million #****** #scheme

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up