LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A lawyer who ran a half-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme to fund his lavish lifestyle and pay off his gambling debt is expected to plead guilty, the 8 News Now Investigators have learned.
Matthew Beasley agreed to plead guilty to five counts of wire fraud, documents said. A federal grand jury voted to indict him in 2023.
The maximum possible sentence Beasley faces is 100 years in prison, plus a fine of $1.25 million and supervised release. As part of the agreement, federal prosecutors will suggest a lesser penalty than statutorily required, documents said.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Prosecutors originally charged Beasley in 2022 after an FBI agent-involved shooting on Mar. 3, 2022, at his home near the 215 Beltway and Ann Road.
Beasley was previously charged with one count of assault on a federal officer for pointing a gun at an FBI agent when they came to his house to talk to him about their investigation, officials said. Beasley refused to drop a gun, leading an agent to shoot him, the department said after his arrest. That criminal case was later dismissed.
Investigators said that more than 600 people invested with Beasley, involving nearly half a billion dollars. Beasley used the money to buy luxury items and pay off gambling debts, court documents said. In the plea agreement, prosecutors describe the scheme as “massive.”
“Approximately $331.4 million of the $461 million was returned to investors, causing some investors to profit from their investments, some to break even, and others to lose money,” prosecutors said in documents filed Friday. In total, 948 investors lost a total of nearly $246.4 million.”
Advertisement
Advertisement
Beasley paid himself $33.5 million, using the money to purchase “luxury homes, high-end cars, recreational vehicles, among other things,” prosecutors said. About $11 million of the $33.5 million went “to pay off his gambling debts and $22.8 million to enrich himself and to continue gambling.”
“In short, the defendant knowingly caused investors to believe that their investments would be used to fund loans to personal injury plaintiffs… waiting to receive settlements from their claims against insurance companies, when the defendant knew all along that he would not use investor money to fund loans but to enrich himself and others, and to repay investors as if loans had been made,” documents said.
The scheme allegedly began around 2017 when “Beasley falsely and fraudulently represented to [a person] that he could find plaintiffs in personal injury lawsuits who wanted to borrow money against their settlements,” documents said.
During the 2022 standoff with the FBI, Beasley “repeatedly confessed to an FBI negotiator that… [the] investment scheme was actually a Ponzi scheme that started in 2016 or 2017,” documents said.
Advertisement
Advertisement
The state bar later suspended Beasley’s law license.
An evidentiary hearing was scheduled for Nov. 24, which was unlikely to move forward following the plea agreement. It was not clear when Beasley could enter the plea in court.
Beasley’s public defender did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
