FINRA excludes ex-AXA broker Kenneth Neely for investment scam

According to the statement of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a former AXA Advisors LLC broker Kenneth Neely of St. Louis has been excluded from the U.S. securities industry for running a more than $600,000 Ponzi scheme whose victims included members of his own church. 

As FINRA found, the scheme ran from June 2001 to June 2009 and that AXA Advisors, a unit of France's AXA SAfired Neely after he admitted converting customer funds for his personal use.

As it became known, Neely prompted at least 25 customers of AXA and his former employer, Stifel Nicolaus & Co, as well as family and fellow church members, to participate in a bogus "St. Louis investment Club" and invest in a nonexistent real estate investment trust.

Thus, as FINRA says, Neely was trying to avoid scrutiny by employers and tax authorities by having investors make payments of $2,000 to $3,000 to his wife. He also prepared false invoices designed to look like official ownership certificates. Neely paid out about $300,000 to some investors, and converted a larger sum for his own needs. 

Neely entered a consent agreement concerning FINRA's findings, the regulator's records show. FINRA said it has referred the matter to prosecutors.