Earlier this year, with plans to top his growing restaurant roster with “swanky” bar-restaurants in Scottsdale and Gilbert, Aaron Wagner appeared to be flying high – in an $8 million private jet. Now, his East Valley plans may have crashed and burned. Wagner, a part-time Scottsdale resident who planned Swags in the Entertainment District and a Bottled Blonde in Gilbert, was bottled up – behind bars -- for two weeks before being released with a GPS monitoring device.
An investor with Wagner’s Wags Capital, who asked not to be named, said he was one of many Wagner scammed. “There are hundreds of people that have been screwed over by him and Wags Capital,” the investor said, “and hope his name becomes synonymous with fraud and is never able to do another deal again.” That wish could come true.
On Oct. 24, the 42-year-old Wagner was arrested and booked into a Salt Lake City prison as a “federal detainee.” According to a charge filed by the U.
S. Attorney’s Office, Wagner “devised a scheme to defraud private investors in restaurant businesses.” In the complaint, FBI Agent Brad Simons said he investigated Wagner and his various companies.
Simons said he found the Wags Capital founder used $2 million from an investor intended for a restaurant venture to help purchase an $8.3 million airplane. According to the federal complaint, Wagner “would show off” his “lavish lifestyle (including personal jets, exotic vehicles, luxury vacations, etc.
) to induce i.