The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a federal lawsuit against Las Vegas attorney Matthew Beasley and six other men accused of operating a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme.
From 2017 through March 2022, at least $449 million from more than 600 investors flowed into the scheme through a Beasley Law Group bank account, according to the complaint filed Tuesday.
Those involved in the scheme are accused of using “the bulk of investor money to fund lavish lifestyles, including purchasing luxury homes and properties, a private jet, ATVs, boats, and numerous luxury cars for themselves and their relatives,” according to the lawsuit.
Beasley, 49, also is accused of using investors’ money to pay off gambling debts he owed to his “bookie,” whom he sent nearly $4 million from the scheme, according to the lawsuit.
In March, Beasley was shot by FBI agents who went to his Las Vegas home to question him about the Ponzi scheme, federal prosecutors have said. Beasley came to the door holding a gun, and at one point pointed it at his own head, prosecutors said.
Beasley was shot after he pointed the firearm at agents “in a sweeping motion,” according to prosecutors, and he barricaded himself inside his home for four hours.
During the standoff, the SEC lawsuit alleges, Beasley admitted that the investments he organized with companies controlled by Jeffrey Judd of Henderson were part of a Ponzi scheme. Federal prosecutors have previously said the scheme was worth…
