Tue, Jan 31, 2006
Asked For Financial Aid For His "Relief" Efforts
After deceiving those who thought they were supporting hurricane
relief efforts, and gave him thousands of dollars to support that
worthy cause, Gary Kraser 'fessed up in a Miami federal court
Monday that he was no Good Samaritan.
In fact, he wasn't even a pilot -- despite his assertions on the
now-defunct www.AirKatrina.com that he
flew several relief flights in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina,
including a claim he evacuated a 7-month-old infant who later
underwent transplant surgery in South Florida.
Kraser solicited the money in order to pay his fuel bills -- for
a plane that never existed, according to the Miami Herald.
The 50-year-old man pleaded guilty to fraudulently soliciting
charitable donations, and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 13.
He was arrested last October, after asking for contributions on his
website from August 28 to September 6.
In that brief amount of time, Kraser received over $40,000 in
contributions from people in Florida, Canada, Mexico, and Europe,
all eager to help in the devastating hurricane's aftermath. One
foreign contributor alone kicked in $20,000.
The FBI says most of the contributions have already been
returned.
Kraser, who has no prior criminal record, faces as much as 20
years in prison for the wire-fraud conviction -- although his
actual sentence is expected to be much less due to his plea.
FMI: www.redcross.org
(Contribute to hurricane relief -- for real)
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