TOPEKA — The former top executive of a company granted a banking charter by the Kansas Legislature was found guilty Thursday by a federal jury of orchestrating a scheme to funnel more than $150 million to himself through securities fraud, false claims and fabricated records.
Brad Heppner, who founded Beneficient and convinced Kansas lawmakers five years ago to award the Dallas company a bank charter, had entered a plea of not guilty to securities fraud, wire fraud and making false statements, as well as conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud. He was arrested in November and went on trial three weeks ago in New York City. The jury found him guilty on all four counts.
Heppner, 60, of Dallas, faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on each count of securities fraud, wire fraud and making false statements to auditors. The conspiracy count carries a maximum penalty of five years behind bars. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 7.
Jay Clayton, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said the jury unanimously found Heppner guilty of fraudulently extracting $150 million to enrich himself.
“Heppner used shell companies to hide his scheme. When his house of cards began to collapse, he did not come clean,” Clayton said.
Instead, the prosecutor said in a statement, Heppner doubled down by falsifying emails and backdating documents to lie to auditors, directors and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
“Our world-leading capital markets are built on trust and transparency,” Clayton said. “The honesty and candor of C-suite executives is essential, and this action should send a message. C-suite executives who breach the public trust will be pursued by the SDNY’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force and our dedicated partners at FBI, vigorously. That is what investors and the American people want and deserve.”
Heppner was convicted of misappropriating cash drawn from GWG Holdings, which he served as chairman before it went bankrupt. At one point, Heppner led both GWG Holdings and Beneficient. He was accused of funneling to himself, through a shell company that he secretly controlled, approximately half of $300 million transferred from GWG Holdings to Beneficient from 2018 to 2021.
In 2020, federal prosecutors said, Heppner responded to a subpoena from the SEC by falsifying minutes from a 2019 meeting to suggest movement of cash to the shell company had board approval.
The federal indictment asserted Heppner devoted at least $40 million to a ranch and a a 22,000-square-foot Dallas mansion with eight bedrooms and 12 bathrooms. He was accused of using $20 million to pay taxes, and of spending lavishly on travel and buying jewelry worth more than $500,000.
Beneficient is a financial services company exchanging cash or stock for illiquid investments bound up in private equity. The objective would be to sell acquired assets for a profit, but insufficient cash on hand and a weak stock price has dimmed Beneficient’s market prospects.
No other current or former GWG Holdings or Beneficient executives have been indicted. No one in Kansas has been indicted, but a Kansas business associate of Heppner testified as a prosecution witness.
Before the trial, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff issued a ruling preventing Heppner from claiming attorney-client privilege to shield from the jury 31 documents related to possible defense strategies that Heppner created with online artificial intelligence tools. The documents were seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation while serving a search warrant on Heppner’s electronic devices.
To secure the bank charter in Kansas, which the state banking commissioner aggressively opposed, Beneficient made campaign contributions to Republicans and Democrats in Kansas.
Heppner pledged a Beneficient subsidiary would direct resources to rural economic development projects in Kansas. The state Department of Commerce handled distribution of those grants. Heppner promised to revitalize his hometown of Hesston. He placed emphasis on construction of an elaborate grocery store in Hesston, which has not been built.
Some members of the Legislature continued to defend the state’s relationship with Beneficient despite Heppner’s indictment. During the 2026 session, the Legislature passed a bill that became law forbidding any state entity from accepting jurisdiction over any Beneficient business operation that filed for bankruptcy.
(Photo of Brad Heppner testifying before Kansas Legislature in 2025 from screenshot capture by Kansas Reflector)
