LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A Las Vegas lawyer accused of running a half-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme will remain in custody pending trial as prosecutors released a letter they said he wrote to the FBI.

A federal judge ordered Matthew Beasley, 50, to remain in custody Monday amid prosecutors’ concerns about public safety, records showed. A magistrate judge ordered Beasley’s release earlier this month, which prosecutors appealed.

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.

Prosecutors argued Beasley is a “flight risk” and a “danger to the community.”

“Beasley was unquestionably suicidal during his confrontation with law enforcement in March 2022,” prosecutors wrote in documents filed Monday. “He told the crisis negotiator that he
wished the FBI agents ‘would have killed me,’ and that ‘I need to get the balls to (expletive) pull this trigger.'”

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. Beasley also reportedly told the FBI he transferred $4 million to his “bookie” to pay off gambling debts, the lawsuit said.

Beasley’s attorney had said earlier this month that his release with conditions pending trial was “consistent with his constitutional rights.”

Prosecutors also filed a letter in the court docket, which they said Beasley wrote to the FBI. It was unclear when the letter was sent.

“First and foremost let me say that I am the only one responsible for this entire mess,” Beasley reportedly wrote. “Jeff Judd had nothing to do it. My wife and kids had nothing to do with it. Nobody knew any details because I kept everything to myself intentionally.”

“I didn’t mean this to happen. I was just trying to get by and take care of my family. Everything
went nuts. I was really just borrowing money from Jeff to pay my gambling debts. Instead it turned into this. I have no excuse.”

A civil lawsuit filed last year named Judd, of Henderson, and several others. The case was voluntarily dismissed in February. Beasley and Judd are named in a federal lawsuit the Securities and Exchange Commission filed last year.