Beneficient Company Group, L.P.

Beneficient Company Group, which is delivering financial services under a unique Kansas charter issued in 2022.. GWG Holdings still owns $1.4 billion in Beneficient stock, and a rise in Beneficient’s value would directly benefit creditors. Lawyers representing creditors before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston said analysis of business records, interviews and depositions revealed Brad Heppner, founder and chief executive officer of Beneficient, was at the center of a scheme to plunder GWG by misleading investors, marketing now-worthless bonds, engaging in fraudulent insider deals and siphoning cash. The Kansas charter granted to Beneficient a year ago by the Legislature enabled the company to begin work with wealthy individuals, small business owners or modest institutional investors — nearly all from out-of-state — by swapping cash or stock for customers’ assets locked in professionally managed investment funds, including venture capital, private equity, structured credit or real estate. Beneficient’s goal has been to mimic financial services typically reserved for massive institutional investors — such as a state pension systems — for benefit of smaller players in the market who wanted to offload illiquid assets.