T
wo men from Oregon, Robert D. Christensen and Anthony M. Matic, have been federally indicted for allegedly defrauding individual investors and commercial lenders out of more than $18 million. They are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering in a 21-count indictment.

    The indictment claims that between January 2019 and June 2023, Christensen and Matic devised a scheme to convince individual investors to fund the purchase and renovation of undervalued residential real estate properties. They promised to rent these properties to generate income and then refinance them to extract their increased value from the renovations. However, investigators allege that the pair misled investors into believing they would be repaid their full principal investment along with interest as high as eight to fifteen percent and a large lump sum payout within periods as short as 30 to 90 days.

    The scheme failed to generate the promised returns almost immediately, and Christensen and Matic allegedly used new investments to repay earlier investors to keep their business afloat. When they couldn't raise enough money from new investors, they devised another scheme to defraud commercial lenders.

    By December 2020, Christensen and Matic began submitting loan applications with false financial information to different commercial lenders, based on which they received millions of dollars in loans. Law enforcement claims that these schemes defrauded individual investors out of more than $11 million and commercial lenders out of more than $7 million.

    Christensen and Matic pleaded not guilty in federal court on Monday and were released on conditions pending a 7-day jury trial scheduled to begin on October 29, 2024. The U.S. Attorney's Office states that conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud are punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison and three years of supervised release. Money laundering is punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison and three years of supervised release. All three charges may also result in fines of up to $250,000 or twice the gross gains or losses resulting from the offense.