Man Accused Of Scamming Vets With "Winged Warrior" Raffle

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - A man who claimed he was spearheading a special effort to help veterans ran a raffle which brought in big bucks, more than $100,000.

Now those who bought tickets are wondering where did the money really go?

Jason Wirtzer is a licensed pilot. He claims to be helping veterans by running a charity that raffles off planes. The money raised goes to "no-cost" pilot training for active and retired military.

But what is he really doing with the money?

An investigative reporter from our sister station in Los Angeles tracked him down.

His Inglewood, California program, called "Winged Warriors," claims to be a nonprofit organization.

In 2013, they were selling raffle tickets to win a plane. People from South Florida all the way too Alaska bought tickets; Paul Williams was one of them.

"Well, even if I didn't win, I am still supporting troops," Williams said.

The retired Army pilot didn't win. But Mark Donnelly from California did.

"I got a phone call saying I was the second-place winner," Donnelly said.

He was supposed to win a pair of pilot headsets worth $1,000 but never got them.

"Anyone that uses veterans, or any other type of organization, to try and run a scam to make money for themselves, that is just pretty upsetting, " Donnelly said.

More than 100 people here in Florida bought raffle tickets. Most were shocked and wouldn't go on camera, but one man told CBS4 by email "Charity scams are bad enough, but taking advantage of veterans is the lowest of low."

The plane raffle ticket buyers were hoping to win ended up belonging to Bob Hancock of Lake Havasu. He had it up for sale. He said he even cut the price for Wirtzer.

"I thought it was awesome. A lot of military in my family and I'm a flight instructor and I even volunteered to give free instruction," Hancock explained.

But all three Winged Warriors checks bounced. In the meantime Wirtzer raised a lot of money. A spreadsheet shows tickets sold across the country, nearly 4,500, brought in almost $175,000 thousand dollars.

One Florida man bought $800 dollars worth of raffle tickets. He did not want to go on camera but he showed us his email communication with Wirtzer who explained that the person who offered to donate the plane backed out.

Writzer added "It takes a real lowlife to pledge a donation then withdraw it when it's time to pay."

A CBS4 investigation revealed that Wirtzer has done this a few times.

Each time he got out of delivering a plane that he didn't own. Instead he offered ticket buyers a cash prize of $35,000. He sold an additional 2,500 raffle tickets for donors to win their own money back which potentially earned him at least another $100,000.

Our anonymous donor asked for a refund multiple times but never received it. The California franchise tax board says Winged Warriors is not recognized as a charity. The Attorney General's Office said it's not registered to hold raffles. But that hasn't slowed down Wirtzer.

A reporter from CBS4's sister station in Los Angeles caught up to him recently in Marina Del Rey California.

"Can you prove that you've trained 25 vets?" he was asked.

"I'd like to, I'd like to," he responded.

"You'd like to but you haven't, right?" he was asked.

He didn't respond.

Wirtzer was also asked about the people who claim they won prizes but never got anything from him. When asked if he was scamming people he said "Absolutely not." With that this pilot took off, fleeing anymore questions.

Before you give to a charity it's always best to verify they are legitimate. There are a number of websites available to do that quickly.

Here are a few below:
Charitynavigator.org
Guidestar.org
IRS.gov