Mexican TV personality Inés Gómez Mont, 43, was arrested by police in Miami, Florida, on Friday. Authorities had been searching for her for five years in connection with an alleged $146 million tax fraud scheme.
Méxican authorities accuse Gómez Mont and her husband, attorney Víctor Manuel Álvarez Puga, of organized crime, money laundering, operations with funds of illicit origin, and tax fraud. A federal judge in Mexico issued arrest warrants for the couple in September 2021, but they left the country with their family.
The Mexican Attorney General's Office requested an international arrest warrant, known as a red notice, from Interpol to aid in their apprehension and extradition. However, Interpol controversially lifted the red notices against the couple in September, though their local arrest warrants remained active.
Despite the active warrant in Mexico, Gómez Mont had been living in Miami. US authorities detained her on October 30. She is currently in custody pending immigration proceedings and formal extradition requests.
Authorities allege that Gómez Mont and Álvarez Puga used a network of shell companies to divert nearly $146 million from public funds. According to the Mexican Attorney General's Office, the couple obtained two contracts from the Ministry of Interior in 2016 through a ghost firm called Inteligencia Cibernética. This company was supposed to provide security systems to seven jails, but the money was allegedly diverted, and services were never rendered. Inteligencia Cibernética then purportedly used seven other companies to launder the money and create fake invoices for services never provided between September 2016 and 2017.
Gómez Mont, a mother of six, has denied all wrongdoing. In a statement posted on Instagram in 2021, she asserted her innocence, stating, "I have never stolen a peso. Nor have I received money from those contracts, much less have I seen or had 3 billion pesos in my life. I'm a full-time mom and TV host. And under no circumstances do I belong to organized crime."
If convicted, Gómez Mont and Álvarez Puga could face 20 to 60 years in prison. Álvarez Puga, known as the "King of the Invoice Mills," was previously detained in Miami in 2025 by ICE.
Gómez Mont began her career as an actress in 1997 and later worked for multimedia conglomerate TV Azteca, hosting shows like "Los 25+" starting in 2004. She gained wider recognition in 2008 when she proposed to NFL quarterback Tom Brady while dressed in a wedding dress at a Super Bowl media day event. Brady responded by calling her name beautiful and stating he was a "one-woman man."