A famous Mexican TV host is on the run with her husband after allegedly embezzling $146million from the country’s Ministry of Interior.
Inés Gómez Mont and her lawyer husband, Víctor Manuel Álvarez Puga, are accused of embezzling the fund between 2016 and 2017, according to Uno TV.
On September 10, a federal judge issued a warrant for their arrest. Less than a week later, local outlet TVNotas reported that the couple had fled the country upon learning that they were being investigated.
Now, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office is requesting that Interpol, the international criminal police organization, issue international location and capture orders against the couple.
The orders — more widely known as red notices — would allow authorities across the world to help track the couple’s location.
Shortly after the federal judge issued an arrest warrant, Gómez Mont wrote on Instagram that she and her husband “have not had access to that warrant, nor the proof that justifies it.”
She expressed;
We are preparing to face this process and exercise all our rights.
The couple allegedly laundered money through 1,500 banking operations. The money was diverted from the Ministry of the Interior to companies linked to Álvarez Puga.
The company linked to Gómez Mont and Álvarez Puga is consider a ‘phantom‘ business by the Ministry of Finance, meaning the company issues tax receipts for goods and services that were not actually carried out, according to Animal Político.
Ministry of the Interior issued 2.9million pesos ($146million) to the business and seven other front companies. The money was dispersed throughout and ended up in the accounts of Gómez Mont and Álvarez Puga, according to a federal investigation.
The couple fled to an unknown location with their children, but are expected to face arrest when they return to Mexico, according to Vice.
Gómez Mont and Álvarez Puga are facing charges of money laundering, operations with resources of illicit origin and embezzlement. If convicted, they could be sentenced to between 20 to 60 years in prison, Animal Pólitico reports.
The broadcaster has hosted numerous Mexican talk shows and also works as a sideline sports reporter. She is widely known for proposing to American football player, Tom Brady at 2008 Super Bowl between New England Patriots and New York Giants.
At the time, she attended a press conference before the game wearing a wedding dress and told the quarterback that she loved him.
When Brady called on her during a press conference, she said: ‘I am in love with you. Marry me, please.‘
He politely declined, telling her he was a ‘one-woman man’, adding that; “You are beautiful, and any one who has the opportunity to marry you would be a lucky man.“
