Richard B. Russell Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, Atlanta. (Photo: John Disney/ALM)

A former stock broker was sentenced to five years in prison for taking nearly $1.5 million from clients—primarily retirees and veterans—to pay his own bills and pay for expensive leisure activities, like Super Bowl tickets.

Chief Judge Thomas Thrash sentenced Kelly in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on Thursday to prison after the former stockbroker pleaded guilty in January to securities fraud and wire fraud.

“Kelly never intended to fulfill his fiduciary responsibility to his clients,” said U.S. attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak.

“While it is easy to dismiss financial fraud cases as being almost benign because of their lack of violence, there is, however, a very real victimization felt and lives are changed forever,” said Chris Hacker, special agent in charge of the FBI's regional office in Atlanta.

Kelly, 50, was “absolutely indigent,” when he was arrested in October, an Atlanta defense attorney who temporarily represented Kelly told U.S. Magistrate Judge Justin Anand at the time.

A federal prosecutor concurred, telling Anand that retirees' savings that Kelly was entrusted with to invest “appears to be gone. … There appears to be almost no prospect of getting it back,” according to a hearing transcript.

Court papers filed by federal prosecutors describe Kelly as a registered stockbroker in Marietta prior to his arrest. Through his businesses Lion's Share & Associates, Lionsshare Tax Services and Lion's Share Financial of East Cobb, Kelly offered tax planning, insurance brokering, annuities and investment services.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission—which filed a civil complaint against Kelly shutting down his businesses and freezing his accounts one day before his arrest last year—said Kelly solicited customers by offering free tax preparation services for veterans and free retirement planning seminars in assisted living facilities.

Kelly also urged individuals whom he persuaded to invest with him to cash out other investments and transfer the funds to him, according to one affidavit. He then looted the retirement funds entrusted to him and used the money to pay his mortgage, finance expensive vacations, purchase Super Bowl tickets and for thousands of dollars in cash withdrawals that the SEC said remain “largely unaccounted for.”

Meanwhile, he fabricated account statements and portfolio summaries that falsely informed his clients that the funds were invested and earning returns, according to the SEC.

The SEC began investigating Kelly in 2014 but did not move to shut down his operation until last year. Meanwhile, according to the SEC complaint, Kelly continued to defraud his clients, even after he was informed he was under investigation by the SEC.

In one particularly egregious case, Kelly stole one retiree's settlement from a lawsuit stemming from a defective drug that resulted in cancer, according to the SEC.