A former Parkland Securities broker who was under investigation for a suspected Ponzi scheme has been charged with murdering a client, according to the police department in Carrollton, Texas.
Detectives charged 48-year-old Keith T. Ashley of Allen, Texas, with murder for the shooting death of 62-year-old James "Jim" Seegan, the Carrollton Police Department announced Wednesday.
Ashley was taken into federal custody near his home in Allen Nov. 13 on related wire fraud charges, police said.
On Feb. 19. 2020, Seegan's wife "found her husband dead of a gunshot wound to the head when she returned" to their Carrollton home, Carrollton police said, adding: "Directly next to him was a typed note indicating it was a suicide."
However, during a nine-month, "complex investigation, detectives found evidence that Ashley actually incapacitated, then murdered Seegan in an attempt to gain control of his finances," Carrolton Police claimed.
In addition to serving as Seegan's financial advisor, Ashley was a friend who would periodically visit the Seegan home, Carrollton police said, adding: "During the course of the investigation, detectives also identified several other victims of a 'Ponzi'-type scheme Ashley orchestrated."
Parkland Securities and Dan Lamar Cogdell of Cogdell Law Firm in Houston, who is representing Ashley, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
The firm terminated Ashley Oct. 27, saying it had "reason to believe that the representative engaged in undisclosed outside business activities and also failed to provide the firm with prior notice of private securities transactions involving his privately held company," according to a disclosure in his report on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's BrokerCheck website.
