A 64-year-old British man accused of duping a woman out of nearly $2 million was extradited from London and returned to the United States, where he faced wire fraud charges Tuesday in federal court in Portland.
Oscar Peters claimed he was a successful billionaire who had significant business connections and friends in Hollywood when he corresponded with a woman in Oregon and shared that he was going through a divorce and couldn’t access his money or property, according to an indictment.
Through phone calls, text messages and emails, Peters convinced the woman to send him $1.9 million and promised to repay her with a larger sum once his obligations were met, the indictment said.
The woman sent Peters the money in several international wire transfers from early January 2016 through the end of 2017, but had been corresponding with Peters since December 2015, the indictment said.
On Jan. 8, 2016, for example, the woman sent $9,000 to Peters in Denmark and another $3,250 to Peters through a Western Union money transfer service in Denmark. The woman wired the single largest amount, $95,000, to Peters at the Bank of Cyprus on Aug. 7, 2017, according to court records.
Three deputy U.S. marshals flew to London last Friday and returned Peters to Portland to face the 2019 indictment. He was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center at 9:36 p.m. Monday, jail records show.
On Tuesday, Assistant Federal Public Defender Clais Daniel Edwards entered not guilty pleas on Peters’ behalf to seven counts of wire fraud. A tentative trial date has been set for Dec. 19.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan Knight told U.S. Magistrate Judge Youlee Yim You that he had notified the British Consulate in San Francisco of Peters’ arrest.
Peters was previously convicted of a similar offense against a British businesswoman and sentenced to more than three years in custody in July 2018, according to The Sunday Express. At the time, he claimed he was friends with several famous American and British actors, the Sunday Express reported.
