Ex-Broker Appeals Life Sentence for Crimes Tied to Death of Client

But the spokesperson told ThinkAdvisor after the life sentence was handed down only that it is “still an active pending case.”

The current U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, Damien M. Diggs, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the appeal.

Details of the Charges

Ashley, who was formerly employed at Parkland Securities in Allen, Texas, received his life sentence on charges that he had committed as part of a Ponzi scheme that the Justice Department said he carried out for roughly seven years before his arrest in November 2020.

Roughly two years after being taken into custody, he was found guilty by a federal jury of 17 criminal counts relating to wire, bank and mail fraud and carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence.

Ashley was a registered nurse who also began working as an advisor and life insurance agent. According to information presented at his trial, starting in 2016, he began stealing money from his clients.

He promised his clients he would invest their money in financial products but instead used the funds to pay other clients, to keep his struggling brewery in business, to pay his personal bills and to fund a lavish lifestyle, according to court documents.

In May 2016, Ashley started stealing investment funds from James “Jim” Seegan, of Carrollton, Texas. The scheme included Ashley transferring the client’s money into his personal accounts and changing the beneficiary of the Seegan’s life insurance to a trust controlled by Ashley.

On Feb. 19, 2020, Seegan, then 62, was found by his wife dead of a gunshot wound to the head, Carrollton police said at the time, adding: “Directly next to him was a typed note indicating it was a suicide.”

After Seegan’s death, Ashley went through elaborate steps to collect on the client’s life insurance policy, transfer funds from the victim’s bank account to himself, and attempt to obtain a copy of the victim’s autopsy report, according to the Justice Department.

Ashley was indicted by a federal grand jury on Nov. 12, 2020.

Pictured: Keith Todd Ashley