YouTube Star Found Guilty of Insurance Fraud

The popularity of Matt’s Off Road Recovery (MORR) has exploded over the last year. The YouTube channel became famous for documenting their heroic recoveries of all sorts of off-road machines, from sunken and broken Jeeps and trucks to UTVs and even a plane. Recently the channel came under fire for alleged insurance fraud, and now we know the outcome of the situation which for a brief moment seemed like it would shut down the channel.

The company that used to go by Winder Towing is led by Matt Wetzel, the star of the show and the head of the recovery operations on camera. We noted this past December that Matt’s Off Road Recovery (MORR) was accused of insurance fraud. At the time, we wrote, “Investigators say Wetzel’s company Winder Towing falsely charged more than $15,000 of recoveries to AAA [...] AAA does not cover off-road vehicle recoveries, but authorities said in this instance the customer used their friend’s membership to pay for the tow, claiming MORR actually towed the friend’s truck.”

That’s not all: “Wetzel said the claims were ‘wrong on the front end, but fair on the back.’ The story goes that Wetzel would perform services for a customer and later ask them to submit a claim through AAA, rather than bill them directly at the time of service. Wetzel reportedly told investigators that he never turned in a claim that did not have a ‘legitimate service tied to it.’”

With over one million subscribers, MORR is in the public eye more now than ever. Jalopnik reports that MORR was officially being investigated by the Utah Insurance Fraud Division for the aforementioned misrepresented claims. When the gavel landed, Wetzel pleaded no-contest to a class A misdemeanor to avoid prison time. To repay for his wrongdoing, Wetzel will be on probation for 18 months and will pay back $15,328 to AAA along with a fine of $1,745 to Utah’s insurance fraud arm. For a public persona who has made his name on serving those who need assistance, this is a small price to pay for the accusations at hand.

**This story has been corrected to reflect that Wetzel pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, not a felony. Thanks to reader Dave Olmstead for pointing out the error.