(Reuters) - U.S. authorities are searching for a fugitive who escaped a federal minimum-security work camp in California, where he was being held for duping investors out of more than $100 million, local media reported.

Frederick Darren Berg, 55, on Wednesday walked out of the U.S. Penitentiary Atwater Satellite Prison Camp, where he was serving a 18-year sentence for what is considered the state of Washington’s biggest Ponzi scheme, the Seattle Times reported, citing the U.S. Marshals Service.

Berg pleaded guilty in a Seattle federal court in 2012 to defrauding more than 800 investors of more than $100 million through a series of funds for real estate investments he ran for about a decade. He was also ordered to pay more than $140 million in restitution, the newspaper reported.

He used the money that he bilked out of investors to fund a lavish lifestyle that included purchasing million-dollar properties in Washington and California, Lear jets and several yachts, the Times reported.

“More than 800 victims suffered losses from Berg’s schemes – losing dreams of retirement, home ownership or educational opportunities for children and grandchildren,” Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle, told the Times. “Darren Berg will be captured, held to account and returned to federal custody.”