FBI agents today searched the Palm Desert home of a man whose Fresno equipment-leasing company is suspected of operating as a Ponzi scheme that cost investors more than $138 million.

Steve Dupre, a spokeman with the FBI's Sacramento office, said agents served the search warrant at the country club home of the late John Otto. Otto was the chief executive officer of HL Leasing, which shared offices in northwest Fresno with another Otto enterprise, Heritage Pacific Leasing.

Complicating the investigation is Otto's suicide on May 11. Otto died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head in a parking lot in Palm Desert, only a few miles from his home.

Click the markers on the map below for details. If you have trouble seeing the map, right-click on the space to refresh the graphic, or use this link.

View Ponzi investigation in a larger map

Investors contacted authorities after the company failed to make its April payments. The investigation got a lot more complicated, however, on May 11. That's the day Otto committed suicide, shooting himself in the head in a parking lot in Palm Desert, only a few miles from his home.

Investigators believe HL Leasing bilked investors by promising them high interest rates on loans secured by equipment leases that agents believe never existed. Instead, money from new investors was used to make interest payments to earlier contributors.

Details on the basis for the search warrant are not yet available. Dupre said the affidavit on which the warrant was based has been sealed by a judge.

An attorney has also filed a class-action suit in Fresno against Otto's estate, HL Leasing and some of Otto's associates on behalf of investors.