A former San Antonio professional gambler who reinvented himself as an investment adviser is now one of the FBI’s most wanted fraudsters, accused of bilking roughly 400 investors out of a combined $10 million. Imer Gomez, 29, is on the bureau’s wanted list, with federal authorities saying he’s a fugitive believed to be somewhere near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
According to the San Antonio Express-News, which reported the listing, Gomez had no real experience managing money before he began soliciting clients through two firms he operated, K&G Investment Solutions LLC and Helios Venture Fund LLC. Neither company was ever registered in any state, according to the SEC complaint cited by the paper. Daniel Faith, special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Antonio field office, said Gomez is sought in connection with a sealed indictment on wire fraud charges tied to an alleged Ponzi scheme.
How the Alleged Scheme Worked
According to the SEC complaint, Gomez told clients he could deliver double-digit monthly returns by trading securities on their behalf, but never actually traded those funds or put the money to work the way he promised. Instead, the SEC’s civil complaint, filed via SEC.gov, alleges that Gomez falsely told investors their advisory accounts were insured for up to 75% of their value — a guarantee that didn’t exist. Clients were told their portfolios would be made up of select exchange-traded funds and individual stocks, per the Express-News report, and many received fake account statements showing fictitious gains that never materialized.
Gomez allegedly leaned on existing clients to recruit new investors, a hallmark of Ponzi structures that depend on fresh money to pay earlier victims. When the scheme began to collapse, Gomez reportedly claimed a sudden liquidation had destroyed the business and prevented him from returning client funds, and later claimed Helios was finalizing a guaranteed bailout loan — a loan the SEC says never existed. No clients ever got their money back, according to the same account.
Targeting South Texas Families
Gomez reportedly promised at least one client generational wealth. Many of the alleged victims were blue-collar workers who invested their retirement savings, Faith said, with losses averaging about $25,000 per person across the San Antonio area and Central and South Texas…