DENPASAR (AFP) - An American fugitive accused of running an investment scam in his home country has been arrested in Bali, where he was working as a porn actor-director, police said on Friday (July 24).

The authorities on the Indonesian holiday island busted Marcus Beam on Thursday - his 50th birthday - over charges that he bilked clients and women he met online out of some US$500,000 (S$693,000) between 2015 and last year.

"He claimed to be an investment manager but didn't invest the funds and instead spent it on his own expenses," Bali police chief Petrus Reinhard Golose told reporters, adding that Beam was wanted by Interpol.

The former Chicago resident - wearing a face mask, gloves and face shield at Friday's briefing - faces nine counts of fraud in an indictment filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission last year.

It said he misrepresented his investment acumen and swindled victims "through a purported advisory business known as Chase Private Equity, which he later changed to New World Capital".

Beam entered Bali in January with a fake passport and has since been directing and acting in pornographic films, which he sold online.

"While in Bali he's been making porno movies... to earn money," Mr Golose said, adding that police also seized sex toys during the arrest at his residence.

Authorities said they would work with US diplomatic personnel about a possible extradition.

Last month, police in Indonesia's capital Jakarta arrested another American fugitive, Russ Medlin, on local sex-abuse charges.

Medlin is wanted in the US for defrauding investors out of US$722 million as part of the "BitClub Network", dubbed the world's biggest cryptocurrency scam.