The FBI has added a Texas man accused of running a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, a type of investment fraud in which money from new investors is used to make earlier investors believe their investment is making money, to its new Most Wanted Fraudsters list as authorities try to find him.
Imer Gomez, 29, has been added to the list after being charged with wire fraud over an alleged scheme that the FBI says raised approximately $10 million from more than 400 investors, many of whom were based in the San Antonio area.
The FBI announced Gomez's addition to the list on October 13, saying they believe he is trying to avoid prosecution in Mexico. He was formally charged by a federal grand jury in Texas in July 2025, but the charges were kept under seal and have only recently been made public.
What Is The Most Wanted Fraudsters List?
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The Most Wanted Fraudsters list is relatively new. The FBI created and launched the list in June 2026 to generate public interest and encourage people to provide information that might help them find fugitives wanted in connection with major U.S. fraud cases.
It’s separate from the bureau's traditional “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list and focuses exclusively on people wanted for major fraud, and the FBI offers rewards of up to $150,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of someone featured on the fraudsters list.
What Is Gomez Being Accused Of?
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According to the FBI, Gomez allegedly carried out the scheme from between 2021 and 2024 through companies including K&G Investment Solutions LLC, Helios Venture Capital Group LLC, and Helios Venture Fund LLC.
Gomez allegedly presented himself as a successful investor and told clients that their money would be placed in personalized portfolios and invested in the stock market. The FBI alleges that the money was instead used to finance a lavish lifestyle and make payments to earlier investors, as well as Gomez's family, friends and business associates.
He’s also accused of giving investors fake account statements that appeared to show their accounts growing rapidly.
The allegations against Gomez have also been the subject of a separate civil enforcement action from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
On July 14, 2025, the SEC charged Gomez, doing business as K&G Investment Solutions, LLC and Helios Venture Fund, LLC, with allegedly defrauding clients out of around $9 million between August 2021 and September 2023.
The SEC alleged that Gomez told his clients that he was an experienced trader who could produce “monthly double-digit returns” by trading on their investments on the stock market for them. Gomez also allegedly claimed that each client's account was insured for up to 75 percent of its value.
However, the SEC alleges that the clients' money wasn't being invested in the way they’d been promised it had. It said that the money wasn't used to buy and sell investments such as stocks, the investment accounts clients were told they had were never actually set up or managed, and the insurance they were told would protect their money was never obtained.
Instead, the money was allegedly used for Gomez's “lavish lifestyle, make Ponzi payments, and fund unrelated business ventures.”
The SEC is asking the court to order the repayment of the money allegedly obtained through the scheme, along with interest, and to impose a financial penalty on Gomez.
Newsweek has contacted the FBI and SEC and is awaiting comment.
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Rebecca Flood and Gray R. Thomas