Keith Todd Ashley of Ann Arbor, Michigan, a stockbroker registered with Parkland Securities LLC, has been barred from associating with any Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) member in any capacity because Ashley failed to provide information and documents to FINRA during the time that it investigated possible violations of FINRA rules. Department of Enforcement v. Keith Todd Ashley, Order Accepting Offer of Settlement, Disciplinary Proceeding No. 2020068470002 (October 21, 2022).
According to the Order, In October 2020, FINRA began an investigation into the circumstances of Ashley’s termination from Parkland Securities. On October 27, 2020, Parkland Securities LLC discharged Ashley based upon allegations that Ashley engaged in an undisclosed outside business activity. On October 5, 2022, Ashley, 50, was found guilty by a jury of wire fraud, mail fraud, carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence and bank fraud.
According to information presented at trial, beginning in 2016, Ashley, a registered nurse who also began working as a financial advisor and life insurance agent, started stealing money from his clients. Ashley 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. In May 2016, Ashley began stealing investment funds from a Carrollton man. This scheme included transferring the client’s money into his personal accounts and changing the beneficiary of the man’s life insurance to a trust controlled by Ashley.
The scheme eventually resulted in the Feb. 19, 2020, murder of the client, which Ashley attempted to stage as a suicide. Even after the client was killed, Ashley went through elaborate steps to collect on the 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. Ashley was indicted by a federal grand jury on Nov. 12, 2020, and has been charged with various federal violations, including wire fraud, mail fraud and firearms violations.
FINRA Public Disclosure shows that Ashley was also referenced in a customer initiated investment related complaint filed on May 5, 2010, in which the customer requested compensatory damages based upon allegations that Ashley failed to follow instructions when Ashley was associated with Sammons Securities Company LLC.
Ashley was associated with Parkland Securities LLC in Allen, TX, from February of 2002 to October of 2020.
