COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA – Jeffrey M. Carley, age 53, formerly of Treynor, was sentenced Tuesday, March 22, 2022, to five years in prison. Following his prison term, Carley will serve three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $1,364,163.02 in restitution to the victims. Carley pleaded guilty to Wire Fraud on October 22, 2021.
Carley was a financial investment counselor and he owned or had an ownership interest in Carley Financial Group, Prosperity Partners, and Main Street Solutions. From as early as 2013, until December of 2020, Carley encouraged his clients to move money from their traditional IRA accounts to a “self-directed” IRA. Carley then advised his clients to move their money from the “self-directed” IRA to investment opportunities Carley owned or had ownership interest in and advised clients they would receive a financial return. Carley never told his clients that he owned or had an interest in the investments he represented to them as solid investments. Carley also failed to invest the clients’ money and instead used the funds for his personal expenses.
“The defendant…has destroyed the savings of people that trusted him and there is no way to quantify the damage the defendant did to the emotional security of those he stole from. Making this crime even more egregious, it appears, although one cannot be sure, that the defendant flitted away all the money he stole for personal purposes, leaving nothing available to repay the victims,” wrote Assistant United States Attorney Richard E. Rothrock in the government’s sentencing brief. The sentencing judge noted the length of time the scheme lasted and the harm and age of the victims as some of the aggravating factors in this case she considered in determining the five-year sentence.
United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the case. This case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.