Bali Police Arrest US Wanted in Investment Fraud

U.S. national Marcus Beam, center, wearing protective equipment as precaution against the coronavirus, is flanked by police as he is presented to the media during a press conference at the Regional Police Headquarters in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, Friday, July 24, 2020.AP
U.S. national Marcus Beam, center, wearing protective equipment as precaution against the coronavirus, is flanked by police as he is presented to the media during a press conference at the Regional Police Headquarters in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, Friday, July 24, 2020.AP
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Bali Police Arrest US Wanted in Investment Fraud

U.S. national Marcus Beam, center, wearing protective equipment as precaution against the coronavirus, is flanked by police as he is presented to the media during a press conference at the Regional Police Headquarters in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, Friday, July 24, 2020.AP
U.S. national Marcus Beam, center, wearing protective equipment as precaution against the coronavirus, is flanked by police as he is presented to the media during a press conference at the Regional Police Headquarters in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, Friday, July 24, 2020.AP

Authorities on the Indonesian resort island of Bali have arrested a US fugitive accused of investment fraud in the US involving hundreds of thousands of dollars, police said Friday.

Bali police chief Petrus Reinhard Golose said the suspect, Marcus Beam, apparently escaped from the US by using a passport with a different name and entered Bali in January.

Beam was arrested with his girlfriend, who is also a US citizen, in a villa in Badung late Thursday based on a notice from Interpol, Golose said.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission 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.

Instead of investing the money, Beam spent it on personal and business expenses, it said, The Associated Press reported.

To conceal the misappropriation, he sent fraudulent account statements to investors, and did not return any money when they attempted to redeem their investments, the SEC said.

It said it filed a complaint in the US District Court in Chicago last September.

Beam was paraded in handcuffs and a face mask at a police news conference on Friday in Denpasar, the Bali provincial capital.

Golose said there is no extradition agreement between Indonesia and the US, but the two nations have police-to-police cooperation arrangements that would enable Beam to be deported to his homeland.



Florida Man Shot Israeli Visitors Thinking They Were Palestinians, Police Say

 Relatives and supporters of Israelis held hostage by Hamas in Gaza mark 500 days of their captivity by spreading a massive Israeli flag depicting an hourglass in the Mediterranean Sea, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, Feb. 17, 2025. Hebrew of the flag reads "Without the abductees, Israel runs out". (AP)
Relatives and supporters of Israelis held hostage by Hamas in Gaza mark 500 days of their captivity by spreading a massive Israeli flag depicting an hourglass in the Mediterranean Sea, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, Feb. 17, 2025. Hebrew of the flag reads "Without the abductees, Israel runs out". (AP)
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Florida Man Shot Israeli Visitors Thinking They Were Palestinians, Police Say

 Relatives and supporters of Israelis held hostage by Hamas in Gaza mark 500 days of their captivity by spreading a massive Israeli flag depicting an hourglass in the Mediterranean Sea, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, Feb. 17, 2025. Hebrew of the flag reads "Without the abductees, Israel runs out". (AP)
Relatives and supporters of Israelis held hostage by Hamas in Gaza mark 500 days of their captivity by spreading a massive Israeli flag depicting an hourglass in the Mediterranean Sea, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, Feb. 17, 2025. Hebrew of the flag reads "Without the abductees, Israel runs out". (AP)

A Florida man was arrested and charged with two counts of attempted murder after shooting at a vehicle with two men who he thought were Palestinians but turned out to be Israeli visitors, local authorities and media reports said.

The website of Miami-Dade County Corrections says the suspect, 27-year-old Mordechai Brafman, was charged with two counts of attempted murder and booked on Sunday for the shooting on Saturday.

A police official confirmed earlier reports from local media that Brafman said in an interview with police that while he was driving his truck in Miami Beach, he saw two people he thought were Palestinian. He stopped, shot at and killed them.

However, the victims survived. One was shot in the shoulder and the other had a wounded forearm. They turned out to be Israeli visitors and not Palestinians, police said.

A representative or lawyer for Brafman could not be immediately identified by Reuters.

Human rights advocates say there has been a rise in anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian and antisemitic hate in the United States since the start of US ally Israel's war in Gaza following an Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian group Hamas.