https://kutv.com/news/local/utah-men-charged-with-defrauding-crumbl-dirty-bird-investors-lenders-millions-of-dollars

Two Utah men were charged with defrauding private investors in popular restaurant businesses.

The affected businesses include but are not limited to Crumbl Cookies, Dirty Bird, Everbowl, Hello Sugar, and Las Botellas.

Beginning in March 2021, Utah business partners Aaron A. Wagner, 42; and Michael Mains, 46, reportedly devised a scheme to trick lenders and investors into sending millions of dollars to entities the two controlled through Wagscap Food Services, LLC.

Wagner told lenders and investors their funds would be used to develop certain restaurants. He then used the funds for personal expenses, investments, or to "prop up projects for other investor groups, which also included himself as an investor," the attorney's office said.

Wagner also reportedly tricked investors and lenders into thinking he was a successful businessman by showing off his jets, exotic vehicles, and luxury vacations.

"Wagner failed to disclose a large part of his success was financed by investor funds he allegedly stole from the businesses they were meant to support," the attorney's office said. "Essentially, Wagner used new investor money, obtained through fraud, to falsely appease previous investors."

As a result, Wager brought in more than $40 million from investors. With Mains, he purchased a $4 million second home in Scottsdale, Arizona; an $8 million personal airplane; a $4.5 million commercial property to be developed into a nightclub; and an $8 million real estate property in Missoula, Montana.

The purchases were not limited to this, the attorney's office said.

Wagner and Mains were both charged this week with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, transactional money laundering, and concealment money laundering.

Their jury trial is scheduled for February 2025.