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)