Robert Miracle of Bellevue, Wash., plunked down $38,000 to pay for a tw0-carat diamond ring and $27,000 for a painting from Italy.

Trouble was, federal prosecutors said, Miracle had expensive tastes — but no real money to pay for them. He has been charged with running a $65 million Ponzi scheme.

Also named in a 23-count indictment were Mukhtar Kechik and Fahimi Fisal, two Malaysian nationals. The indictment includes allegations of mail fraud, wire fraud, money-laundering, tax evasion and conspiracy.

Miracle already has been arrested. Warrants were issued for Kechik and Fisal.

Prosecutors said Miracle operated a number of companies allegedly involved in oil development in Malaysia and Indonesia.

These include:

• Laramie Petroleum Inc.
• MCube Petroleum Inc.
• Diski Limited Liability Co.
• Basilam Limited Liability Co.
• Halmahera-Rembang Limited Liability Co.

“Miracle and his co-defendants represented to investors that these companies were making money from oil-field development and from the sale of oil-field services,” prosecutors said.

“In fact,” prosecutors said, “the funds of later investors were used to pay off the investments of earlier investors. Between September 2004 and October 2007, Miracle took in more than $65 million from investors and paid out more than $36 million in returns to investors, using funds from later investors. The remainder of the investor monies — more than $28 million — was used in a failed effort to develop oil and gas on fields in Indonesia, as well as to pay for a lavish lifestyle for Miracle and his cohorts.”

Engaging in a conspiracy, Miracle allegedly misled investors both about his business background, and about the success of the companies he promoted, prosecutors said.

Miracle, for example, “falsely claimed to have been employed by NASA and Disney,” prosecutors said.

He also “falsely claimed that his companies actually were producing and selling oil and gas,” churning out press releases to brag about his accomplishments, prosecutors said.

But it was all just an elaborate deception.

“Between 2004 and 2007, Miracle issued a number of press releases and ‘investor updates’ touting his companies’ successes,” prosecutors said. “According to e-mails referenced in the indictment, the conspirators plotted to make false financial statements, which they referred to as ’simulation files,’ [which] falsely showed that the companies were producing oil and gas, and receiving revenues from the sale of that oil and gas. Miracle also allegedly created false bank documents to support their fraud.”

Prosecutors seek the forfeiture of the diamond ring and painting. They also alleged that he took 10 family members on a week-long cruise at a cost of more than $77,000, paying for the cruise with investors’ funds.

At the same time, prosecutors said he “evaded taxes on more than $527,000 of income in 2005 by falsely classifying the money that he received from his companies that year as loans to him from the companies, rather than as salary.”