A former Beaverton charity boss pleaded not guilty on Monday to wire fraud and money laundering after the government accused him of making off with roughly $4 million of the nonprofit's funds – including enough to buy a condo in Thailand.

Brian J. Brown appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dennis J. Hubel, who allowed him to go free as he awaits a Dec. 17 trial. Hubel ordered Brown to surrender his passport, wear a GPS ankle monitor, and stay at home from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Federal agents with the FBI and IRS arrested Brown on Sunday morning, when he stepped off a plane at Portland International Airport after a month-long trip to Thailand.

Eleven days earlier, a federal grand jury in Portland handed up an indictment that accuses Brown of conspiring to defraud National Relief Charities, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of Native Americans. He's also accused of laundering proceeds.

The government accuses Brown of stepping down as president of the charity in 2005 to establish another nonprofit, Charity One Inc., which did business as the American Indian Education Endowment Fund.

Brown induced his former nonprofit to fund Charity One Inc. with $4 million between 2006 and 2009, saying the money would offer scholarships for Native Americans, according to prosecutors.

"Instead," the government wrote in a news release, "Brown and unnamed co-conspirators allegedly used the entire $4 million for their personal benefit."

National Relief Charities mailed monthly checks of either $100,000 or $200,000 from its offices in Beaverton and Sherman, Texas, to Brown's new nonprofit. To keep the fraud alive, prosecutors allege, Brown provided National Relief Charities false financial statements showing his outfit had put the money to good use.

At his arraignment before Hubel, Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth Uram said federal agents traced $3.2 million of the missing money. They discovered that Brown had transferred money to Thailand, where he took up residence from 2006 to 2013, and paid $275,000 for a condo.

Uram told Hubel he was concerned that Brown would try to hide assets "beyond the government's reach" and be granted a court-appointed attorney.

Brown, a stocky, muscular man with a broad chin, told the magistrate he couldn't afford a lawyer.

Hubel appointed him an assistant federal public defender for the day. But he warned Brown that if the government later discovered he had hidden away assets, he would be required to reimburse the United States for that representation and possibly face additional charges.

-- Bryan Denson