Advisor on FBI's 'Most Wanted' List Arrested on Fraud Charges

A former Iowa financial advisor who landed on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s “most wanted” list has been arrested on wire fraud and money laundering charges related to allegations he swindled numerous clients.

William Jack Berg, 51, was arrested in Kansas on April 4, according to an arrest warrant that had been filed over two weeks earlier in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa. The FBI field office in Omaha, Neb., announced the arrest on X, formerly Twitter, on April 5.

Authorities allege Berg, last registered as an investment advisor in 2021, scammed more than a dozen clients out of $1.5 million and used the funds for his personal benefit. The court docket indicates he faces 14 fraud counts and one money-laundering count.

The FBI received a tip on Berg’s location on April 4 and he was arrested without incident by the Shawnee, Kansas, police department, an FBI spokesperson told ThinkAdvisor on Tuesday. The spokesperson couldn’t comment further because the investigation is ongoing.

A March 19 indictment alleges Berg sold life insurance, annuities and other products and acted as a financial advisor to people in central Iowa and elsewhere in the U.S., and also created several business entities and opened bank accounts in their names. He was the sole owner and signer on those accounts, it says.