Brad Heppner, founder of Dallas-based Beneficient, arrested on fraud charges

Brad Heppner, the founder of Dallas-based financial services startup Beneficient, was arrested by federal authorities on Tuesday on multiple fraud charges, federal prosecutors announced this week.

The charges relate to an alleged scheme that was orchestrated by Heppner as part of a plan to extract for himself more than $150 million from another financial company, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York.

Heppner was arrested in Dallas, and the case will be heard at a federal court in Manhattan.

Prosecutors say Heppner used a shell company called Highland Consolidated Limited Partnership (HCLP) to perpetrate the fraud on GWG Holdings, a Dallas-based firm that later filed for bankruptcy, by exploiting the close ties between GWG and Beneficient. Heppner, along with leading Beneficient, served as chairman of GWG and also controlled HCLP.

Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/business/2025/11/05/brad-heppner-founder-of-dallas-based-beneficent-arrested-on-fraud-charges/