掏空 GWG 逾1.5亿美元供个人挥霍：前董事长 Bradley Heppner 在纽约被判25年监禁
美国纽约南区联邦法院10月21日判处 GWG Holdings 前董事长兼 Beneficient 创始人 Bradley Heppner 25年监禁。量刑在法官 Jed S. Rakoff 主持下于当天下午在 Daniel P. Moynihan 联邦法院宣判，检方此前请求判处30年。
此案经过三周审判，陪审团已于今年5月7日裁定 Heppner 证券欺诈、电汇欺诈、共谋实施证券与电汇欺诈以及向审计师作虚假陈述等罪名全部成立。检方指控，他在2018至2021年间通过一家由自己秘密控制的空壳公司 Highland Consolidated Limited Partnership（HCLP），以偿还一笔所谓1.41亿美元债务为名，从 GWG 套取超过1.5亿美元，用于 Dallas 豪宅逾4000万美元的装修、私人飞机出行、信用卡还款与珠宝购买。
GWG 是一家在 Nasdaq 上市的金融服务公司，主要通过向散户与退休投资者出售高收益的 L 债券募集资金，受害投资者约2.6万至2.7万人，多数是把积蓄投入其中的退休者；GWG 已于2022年申请破产保护。纽约南区联邦检察官 Jay Clayton 在定罪时表示，Heppner 用空壳公司掩盖其骗局，骗局开始崩塌时不但不坦白，反而伪造邮件、倒填文件，继续欺骗审计师、董事与证券交易委员会（SEC）。
法庭文件显示，检方在量刑阶段强调，1万美元的 L 债券对许多受害人而言是他们仅有的一笔金融投资；Heppner 的投资人关系顾问在庭上作证称，公司从一开始就知道拿不回这笔钱的投资者最终会「血本无归」。Beneficient 方面已与 Heppner 分割，并正寻求通过协商或诉讼消除约1.3亿美元的 HCLP 相关债务、追回款项返还受害投资者，民事诉讼仍在进行。
Former GWG Chairman Bradley Heppner Sentenced to 25 Years in $150 Million Fraud
A federal judge in the Southern District of New York on October 21 sentenced Bradley Heppner, the former chairman of GWG Holdings and founder of Beneficient, to 25 years in prison. Judge Jed S. Rakoff imposed the sentence at the Daniel P. Moynihan United States Courthouse; prosecutors had asked for 30 years.
After a three-week trial, a jury convicted Heppner on May 7 of securities fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud, and making false statements to auditors. Prosecutors said that between 2018 and 2021 he used a shell company he secretly controlled, Highland Consolidated Limited Partnership (HCLP), to extract more than $150 million from GWG on the pretext of repaying a purported $141 million debt, spending the money on more than $40 million of renovations to his Dallas mansion, private jet travel, credit card payments and jewelry.
GWG, a Nasdaq-listed financial services company, raised money largely by selling high-yield L Bonds to some 26,000 to 27,000 retail investors, most of them retirees, and filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said at the verdict that Heppner used shell companies to hide his scheme and, when it began to collapse, doubled down by falsifying emails and backdating documents to lie to auditors, directors and the SEC.
At sentencing, prosecutors stressed that for many victims a $10,000 L Bond was the only financial investment they owned, and Heppner's investor-relations adviser testified the company knew from the start that investors who could not recover the money would end up with nothing. Beneficient has separated itself from Heppner and is seeking to eliminate roughly $130 million of contested HCLP debt and recover funds for victims; civil litigation continues.
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：New York 的 Daniel Patrick Moynihan 联邦法院大楼（本案量刑法院），Flickr 用户 83136374@N05 摄，CC BY 4.0，Wikimedia Commons
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