SAN FRANCISCO -- On Friday, January 12, 2018, Richard Macadangdang Sales, 68, made his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria-Elena James in the Northern District of California after FBI agents from the Bend, Oregon Residence Agency escorted him back to the U.S. from Indonesia. In December 2017, a federal grand jury in Eugene, Oregon indicted Sales on four counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering for an alleged scheme that cheated investors of more than $900,000.

The indictment alleges that between 2011 and 2013, investors were led to believe Sales was using their investments to recover hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of U.S. Treasury Notes located in East Asia and the Pacific. The indictment states that victims believed Sales was building humanitarian housing for victims of natural disasters as part of this recovery process and that they would see returns as high as 100 percent.

Sales had been living outside the U.S. since 2012. Working with the Indonesian National Police and Indonesian Immigration, through the FBI's Legal Attaché office in Jakarta, FBI agents traveled to Indonesia and met Sales as he was deported on January 11, 2018. FBI agents escorted him back to the United States and arrested him after touching down on U.S. soil.

Judge James ordered Sales detained pending transfer by the U.S. Marshals Service to the District of Oregon for further court proceedings.

An indictment is only an accusation of a crime, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Contact for this press release:

Kevin Sonoff
Unites States Attorney's Office
District of Oregon
kevin.sonoff@usdoj.gov