LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A federal judge ordered a Las Vegas lawyer accused in a half-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme to remain in custody Monday amid prosecutors’ concerns about public safety, records showed.
During a hearing Friday, a magistrate judge released Matthew Beasley, 50, with conditions pending trial. The judge had allowed the federal prosecutors to appeal the ruling up until Monday afternoon. The government filed its appeal over the weekend, calling Beasley “a flight risk” and a “danger to the community.”
Beasley faces charges of wire fraud and money laundering, records showed. The FBI took him into custody in March 2022 after an FBI agent-involved shooting at his home near the 215 Beltway and Ann Road.
More than 600 investors took part in the Las Vegas-based Ponzi scheme involving nearly half a billion dollars used to buy luxury items and pay off gambling debts, court documents revealed last year.
Over the course of five years, hundreds of people gave Beasley a total of more than $460 million, the indictment filed against him said. The investments were made in $80,000 and $100,000 installments.
In their request for detention, prosecutors said that during the 4-hour standoff in March 2022, Beasley told a crisis negotiator that he was not coming out alive, documents said. They added his potential conviction carries a life sentence.
“Beasley repeatedly told the crisis negotiator that he intended to kill himself,” prosecutors said. “When asked why he wished the agents would have killed him, Beasley responded, ‘Because I’m going to do it.’”
Beasley’s attorney had said Friday that his release with conditions pending trial was “consistent with his constitutional rights.”
“Mr. Beasley has languished in Nevada Southern Detention Center for 13 months after he was shot by two FBI agents, without a warrant, in his own home on March 3, 2022,” his attorney, Jackie Tirinnanzi, said in a statement Friday. “That interaction resulted in the government charging Mr. Beasley with assault on a federal officer. Over one year later, on March 29, 2023, Mr. Beasley was indicted on charges related to an alleged Ponzi scheme. Later that week, two events occurred: the charge alleging assault on a federal officer was dismissed, and Mr. Beasley made an initial appearance on the new charges related to the alleged Ponzi scheme.”
A hearing on Beasley’s potential release was scheduled for April 18. The magistrate judge’s initial ruling required Beasley to live with his parents, remain in Clark County and participate in mental health treatment.
