by Travis Mateer
To answer the question posed by the title of this post, I told Missoula months ago that Aaron Wagner was NOT a solvent developer capable of building condos where the Missoulian newspaper once got printed. Now, after Wagner was recently arrested by the FBI, a local reporter like Gomer can finally talk about what I was writing about in January.
Before we get to Gomer’s take, here’s MY reporting on Aaron Wagner, going back to his Missoula shit-talking:
Getting To Know Wags Capital While Speculating On A Brewing Oligarch Battle (December 2nd, 2021)
Wags Hands Off To Bergquist To Build The Archie, The Belle, And The Cam (September 21st, 2022)
Missoula Needs More Housing, But The White Lion Sleeps Tonight (January 5th, 2024)
Come Fight The White Lion Blight With The Trash Alchemist! (May 5th, 2024)
The Right Kind Of Pride For The Times? (May 6th, 2024)
The reason I started scrutinizing Wags Capital earlier this year is because a mother reached out to me after her daughter got screwed out of wages while working at a Wags Capital restaurant brand. I was already planning a road trip, so I visited Wagner’s corporate office, one of the restaurants, and I even checked out a stalled project in Scottsdale, Arizona, so with ALL THAT context I was pretty confident that Aaron Wagner was NOT going to build his condo towers in Missoula.
Now let’s take a look at how Gomer is “reporting” on this sad development for the “development team” who wanted to build those condos:
A member of a team looking to redevelop the old Missoulian property in downtown Missoula was arrested Thursday in Salt Lake City and was listed Friday on jail rosters as a federal detainee.
Aaron Wagner, owner of the investment firm Wags Capital, is charged with allegedly defrauding investors. The arresting agency was listed as the Federal Bureau of Investigations and Wagner was being held under an interstate agreement, according to Utah records.
If you want a rehashing of Wagner calling Missoulians “communist pricks” and “a bitchy little victim”, read Gomer, because that’s all his pathetic publication can manage, since nothing else could be found by this “reporter”.
Wagner is one member of a development team that has purchased the Missoulian property. Members of the development team couldn’t be reached on Friday morning for comment regarding Wagner’s arrest and alleged crime.
The Missoula Current requested comment but has yet to hear back from team members. No other information regarding the circumstances around Wagner’s arrest was immediately available.
Nothing more immediately available? Is that because Martin “Gomer” Kidston doesn’t know about Reddit? Because I’m learning LOTS about the circumstances leading up to this arrest, not to mention some perspective about the arrest itself:
While that’s interesting, it’s THIS comment that provides even MORE context for those who are interested, and according to Reddit, there are DEFINITELY locals who are interested in this story:
Aaron Wagner showed Missoula how MONEY is what’s important to the leaders of this town, not principles, quality of life, or making smart investments. And now, what was obvious to casual onlookers regarding this ALPHA douche, is becoming obvious to the local developers community who salivated at the dollar signs instead of asking themselves how effective former football players would be at playing the development game.
What a bunch of fucking idiots.
Should I call in to City Council tonight to let them know I TOLD YOU SO? Maybe I should, since I did, and now Wagner’s arrest indicates my instincts were pretty damn accurate.
If you want even MORE information (which Gomer couldn’t find with a search engine) there’s an article form Hindenburg Research worth checking out about Wagner’s alleged scamming.
On October 24th, Aaron Wagner, a social media financial influencer, and claimed successful entrepreneur managing $1 billion in investor assets, was arrested and taken into jail, per Salt Lake City’s prison inmate lookup.
The Department of Justice unsealed a complaint that had been filed the previous day alleging wire fraud. Per the complaint, Wagner diverted funds raised from an investor—that were supposed to be used to build certain restaurants—to instead purchase a private plane. We are glad to see the DoJ take swift action and hope these steps help maximize recovery for any of Wagner’s aggrieved investors.
We began researching Wagner in August 2023, following outreach from multiple whistleblowers who reported how he had misrepresented his investment performance, falsified financial records, and illicitly skimmed investor assets. We examined these issues in addition to evidence that he fabricated key elements of his background.
Today, we are publishing some of our findings to hopefully shed more light on the story of Aaron Wagner.
Yep, there’s LOTS of information out there available to peruse if you’re not a propagandist like Gomer who gets paid to cheerlead development projects, then do damage control when controversy arises. I wonder, will The Pulp write anything “juicy” about this? Maybe they’re get around to it later this week.
If you appreciate what my citizen journalist produces MONTHS before the narrative controllers, then please consider donating to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF). Any little bit helps.
Thanks for reading!
Good job Travis. It’s too bad this type of thing is all around us and voters put a mental block on all of the signals.
Thank you! I chatted with the CIVIL city attorney about how reasonable 26 dollars is for some police reports. I also let him know the city’s “technical difficulties” are infringing on my rights.
Were there also rape charges?
Good write-up. I know Aaron, and “alpha-douche” captures him pretty well. I remember running into him years ago and going up to him to give a friendly hello, but it was immediately apparent that I was now beneath him and he did not want to be seen fraternizing with one of the poors. I’ve known for years that he was increasingly slimy–as did anyone else who witnessed his cringey noveau-riche conspicuous consumption (most meth-addict mega-jackpot lottery winners are more dignified with their newfound wealth)–so his arrest is unsurprising. I also am acquainted with Brandon Fugal who is, by all accounts, a solid and stand-up professional who seems to be driven primarily by a desire to genuinely excel at what he does–the financial success is merely a welcome by-product. He is also, by the way, a genuinely nice and unpretentious person. So I am of the firm belief that he was unaware of fraud on the part of Aaron. Aaron, on the other hand…one kind of suspected he would betray his own mother for another dollar, and apparently that suspicion was not far off. Sad part is, Aaron had the skills and charisma to be successful *without* resorting to becoming a crooked alpha-douche.