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Industry Spotlight > Broker Dealers

Ex-Cantor Fitzgerald Broker and Olympic Medalist Charged in Capitol Riot

By Jeff Berman

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What You Need to Know

  • Olympic gold medalist Klete Derik Keller was charged with seven counts for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
  • He is the second former broker we know of so far to be be arrested for participating in the incident.
  • Keller worked as a broker for Cantor Fitzgerald from February 2013 to February 2014 before becoming a real estate agent.

Another American arrested for his role in the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6 has turned out to have a financial services background, this time an Olympic medal winner who worked for Cantor Fitzgerald as a broker in Charlotte, North Carolina, from February 2013 to February 2014 and two other firms before that.

Klete Derik Keller was arrested in Colorado in January and charged with seven counts in all for his role in the storming of the U.S. Capitol Building.

Those counts included: civil disorder; obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol Building; impeding passage through the Capitol grounds or buildings; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol Building, according to his indictment, posted online by the Justice Department.

Keller pleaded not guilty, according to Financial Advisor IQ and its sister publication, FundFire.

Cantor Fitzgerald, Keller and his attorney, Edward B. MacMahon Jr., did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Prior to Cantor Fitzgerald, Keller worked as a rep for Northwestern Mutual in Ann Arbor, Michigan, from October 2009 to November 2010 and Multi-Bank Securities from June 2011 to November 2012, according to his report on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s BrokerCheck website. He is no longer registered as a broker, according to BrokerCheck. He is currently working as a real estate agent for Harder Real Estate and Development, according to Realtor.com.

Keller is best-known as an Olympic swimmer who won five medals, including: bronze in the 400-meter freestyle and silver in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay in 2000 in Sydney, Australia; gold in the 4×200 and bronze in the 400-meter freestyle in Athens, Greece; and gold in the 4×200 in Beijing in 2008, according to Olympic.org.

His dark USA jacket played a key role in how the FBI was able to track him down after Jan. 6, according to the complaint and statement of facts posted online, which showed a screenshot of somebody wearing the jacket in the U.S. Capitol Building the day of the riot. The jacket “also appears to bear a Nike logo on the front right side and a red and white Olympic patch on the front left side,” according to the complaint.

Keller wasn’t the only rioter with ties to financial services.

Former broker and RIA Christopher Stanton Georgia, 53, of Alpharetta, Georgia, killed himself three days after he was arrested for his alleged role in the U.S. Capitol riot, according to authorities. He was one of several people arrested Jan. 6, near the Capitol, after D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser issued a curfew in the wake of the riot, court documents showed.

Georgia was charged with entering and attempting to “enter certain property, that is, the United States Capitol Grounds, against the will of the United States Capitol Police,” according to the documents.

Police found Georgia dead in his home Jan. 9. Medical examiners in Fulton County, on Jan. 11, conducted an autopsy after which they ruled the death a suicide, according to the autopsy report.

Jeff Berman

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