The authorities on the Indonesian resort island of Bali have arrested an American fugitive accused of investment fraud in the U.S..
Head of Bali Regional Police Inspector General Peter Reinhard Golose said the suspect, Marcus Beam, escaped the U.S. using a fake name Demario Faulkner and told police that he was on vacation.
He entered Bali in January 2020, and was living with his girlfriend of a U.S. nationality in a villa in the Kerobokan area of Badung. Beam was arrested on a notice from the Interpol, Golose said.
The Bali Regional Police received a Red Notice from Interpol in mid-July and within one week, the Bali Regional Police managed to arrest the perpetrator.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on its website that Beam, of Woodridge, Illinois, is accused of misappropriating about $500,000 from investors that was supposed to be placed in investment funds.
But instead of investing the money, Beam spent it on personal and business expenses. And to conceal the misappropriation, he sent fraudulent account statements to his investors, and did not return any of their money when they attempted to redeem their investments, the SEC said.
The SEC that filed a complaint against Beam in U.S. District Court in Chicago, alleged that Beam violated several laws by lying about his status as a licensed securities professional, misappropriating client funds, sending falsified account statements and failing to return funds that investors requested to redeem.
“The case in question is an investment case in America. He claimed to be the investment manager, but the money entrusted to his clients was not used for investment,” said Golose.
Since his case was filed in September 2020 and Beam didn't show up in court, the federal authorities declared Beam a fugitive from justice. The authorities didn't want him to leave the Northern Illinois District, let alone the country, according to federal court records.
“His case occurred in 2015, but he was not arrested because he was secured by his lawyer. When he was going to trial in September 2019, he was absent and after being tracked, he escaped the country with a fake passport, ” revealed Golose.
As a fugitive in Bali, the 50-year-old Beam has been making and selling sex videos to online pornography sites to support his living expenses.
He is also said to have sold numerous sex toys online, based on the evidence seized by the police.
“He has made various sex videos and sold it to online sites to support his living expenses while in Bali,” Golose said. “We are still investigating whether he involved local people in those videos, but so far the crime he committed was only in his homeland.”
He said Beam had moved about seven times and used several different identities while in Bali.
When Beam was apprehended, he was paraded in handcuffs and a face mask at a police news conference on Friday in Denpasar, the provincial capital of Bali.
The authorities presented evidence they seized including passports, a folding knife, 14 sex toys, five cellphones and 13 other electronic devices.
Regarding to the process of the fugitive, the Bali Regional Police continues to coordinate with the U.S. authorities.
Since there is no extradition agreement between Indonesia and the U.S., the two nations that have police-to-police cooperation arrangements would still enable Beam to be deported to his homeland.
