Former GWG Chairman Convicted of Fraud After Fabricating $141 Million Debt to Extract Over $150 Million
On May 7, 2026, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced that Bradley Heppner, the former chairman of publicly traded GWG Holdings, Inc., was found guilty by a jury following a three-week trial of securities fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud, and false statements to auditors, in connection with a scheme to fraudulently extract more than $150 million from GWG.
As established at trial, between 2018 and 2021 Heppner chaired GWG, a Nasdaq-listed financial services company that raised capital through bonds sold predominantly to retail investors and retirees. Heppner fabricated a $141 million debt that Beneficient, a GWG subsidiary he had founded, purportedly owed to Highland Consolidated Limited Partnership (HCLP), a shell entity he secretly controlled, and, under the guise of repaying it, persuaded the board to transfer millions of dollars to Beneficient. When a special committee asked who controlled HCLP, he falsely claimed it was independent and that he had no financial interest. The funds flowed through multiple entities into his personal accounts and were spent on renovating his Dallas mansion and on private jet travel and jewelry.
Prosecutors said Heppner backdated and fabricated documents to deceive auditors and, after GWG received an SEC subpoena, falsified the minutes of an October 2019 board meeting and caused them to be transmitted to the SEC. Heppner, 60, of Dallas, Texas, is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Jed S. Rakoff on October 7, 2026. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison on each of the securities fraud, wire fraud, and false statements counts, and five years on the conspiracy count; any sentence will be determined by the judge.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于美国纽约州纽约市的莫伊尼汉联邦法院大楼入口，美国纽约南区联邦地区法院所在地，本案在此审理（资料照片）。Ken Lund 摄，CC BY-SA 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Entrance of the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in New York City, home of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, where the case was tried (file photo). Photo by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
