'Heartless scheme': Jet-setting con man stole $24.5M, lived fugitive life in fancy hotels

A man who defrauded people of tens of millions of dollars to fund a jet-setting romantic escape full of stays in five-star hotels was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison, authorities announced Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Dora L. Irizarry’s sentencing of Francius Marganda in federal court in Brooklyn concludes a saga that saw the Indonesian national travel the world thanks to the wallets of hundreds of people who poured savings into his sham investment schemes, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Victims were left “financially crippled” and unable to cover vital costs including cancer treatments and education, prosecutors said.

“Marganda’s attempt to evade justice by fleeing halfway across the world to hide in fancy hotels was futile,” said John J. Durham, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “It is my hope that this prosecution will bring some measure of relief to the victims of Marganda’s fraud, who trusted him with their life savings.”

The 42-year-old fled the United States in 2021 when investors realized Marganda was scamming them. The $24.5 million he stole funded stays in lavish hotels from France and the Maldives to Nepal and Thailand, according to prosecutors. He was ultimately arrested and extradited from Singapore in 2023.

Marganda pleaded guilty last July to securities fraud and was ordered to pay $8.5 million in restitution and forfeit $7.5 million, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Investigators have linked the fraudster to 237 victims, ranging in age from 24 to 84, and spread across 31 states as well as Washington, D.C., and the countries of Malaysia and his native Indonesia, prosecutors said.

Marganda’s victims believed they were investing in short-term, high-interest programs where they could get as much as 200% return on the money they put in, court filings say.

When asked to comment, Marganda’s lawyer, Florian Miedel, said: “Although greatly disappointed in what is an extraordinary sentence for a first time offender, Mr. Marganda will use his time behind bars productively and will endeavor to pay his victims back when he is released.”

The Ponzi scheme leader worked with at least two other people whom he paid a commission for every investor they attracted as well as dinners and hotel stays, according to court filings. The two, Imanuelly Jaya and Theresia Jaya, pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and are awaiting sentencing, court documents say.  

“Francius Marganda’s heartless scheme caused irreparable emotional, psychological, and in some cases even physical damage,” said Michael Alfonso, acting special agent in charge with Homeland Security, Investigations. “Marganda left hardworking families without money they desperately needed for crucial, life-altering expenses . . . No amount of prison time can make up for the irreversible pain Marganda and his co-conspirators have caused.” 

Authorities involved in the investigation spanned the globe, from federal prosecutors in New York City to local police departments in Minnesota and South Carolina, Department of Justice attachés in Manila and Bangkok and police in Singapore.

Fugitive ‘cosmopolitan globetrotter’

Marganda had stolen over $24.5 million by the time investors realized his programs were fictitious. He charted a path on the run in places such as France, the Maldives, Nepal and Thailand, according to prosecutors.

Under the alias “Joshua Setiawan,” Marganda traveled like a “cosmopolitan globetrotter,” prosecutors say in court filings. He typically traveled with a romantic partner and the two stayed in luxury hotels.

According to federal court documents, stays included a three-month stint at the five-star St. Regis Hotel in Bangkok and a five-star Marriott hotel in Kathmandu.

A credit card registered to Marganda’s one-time fiancé – not the partner he traveled with – was used to pay for their first stays on the run, according to court papers.

He was finally arrested by police in Singapore after a stay at the five-star Barracks Hotel Santosa, court documents say.

Ponzi scheme ‘changed futures and ruined families’

Some 237 people invested in Marganda’s sham programs: Easy Transfer and Global Transfer, according to court filings. 

Many investors became involved in the supposed 200% return schemes through Facebook groups, court papers say, and they came from 31 states, plus Washington, D.C., and the countries of Malaysia and Singapore.

Marganda and his assistant targeted other Indonesian immigrants in America who had “limited means,” according to prosecutors. The Indonesian national was in the country illegally after overstaying his visa.

At least 82 of the victims lived in Queens, New York, court papers say. They included people who went to the same church as Marganda’s assistants and they invested by pooling their cash, using both U.S. dollars and Indonesian rupiah.

They poured their life savings into the investment schemes and when they realized the money they had originally saved for their children’s education, weddings and other consequential expenses was gone, it “changed futures and ruined families,” prosecutors say in court filings.

Victims were left struggling to cover chemotherapy treatments and costs from a Stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis; they were unable to travel to bury their parents; several contemplated suicide and worse.

One victim, a young mother, considered ending the life she had hardly begun, according to victims' statements that are part of the public record in the case.

"I kept wanting to harm myself and worse my daughter,” she said in a statement. “My midwives kept calling and texting me every hour just to make sure I wouldn’t do anything that I would regret for the rest of my life.”

Individual victims invested as much as $74,300 in the schemes, according to statements from victims included in court filings.

Several people Marganda swindled told investigators that there are likely more victims who are hesitant to come forward out of shame or fear.

They “are Indonesian immigrants in the US, isolated without family or friends, and they’re terrified to speak up, fearing repercussions from the police or FBI,” one victim said, according to court filings.

The FBI maintains a special page dedicated to Marganda’s Ponzi scheme where new victims can come forward and potentially be eligible for restitution.

Michael Loria is a national reporter on the USA TODAY breaking news desk. Contact him at mloria@usatoday.com, @mchael_mchael or on Signal at (202) 290-4585.