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Dallas investment firm sues WSJ reporter with lawyers from Dominion-Fox News case

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Dallas investment firm sues WSJ reporter with lawyers from Dominion-Fox News case


Beneficient, a Dallas financial services company, has hired the same law firm that represented Dominion Voting Systems in the high-profile lawsuit against Fox News to file a defamation lawsuit against a Wall Street Journal reporter.

Lawyers from Clare Locke on Friday filed a defamation lawsuit in U.S. District Court in East Texas on behalf of Beneficient and its founder and CEO Brad Heppner asking for undisclosed compensatory and punitive damages over a Tweet and series of articles published over the past year in the newspaper by staff writer Alexander Gladstone.

The Wall Street Journal published a story on Friday that quoted private documents it viewed that showed Beneficient was using a faulty accounting method that would misstate revenue and showed payments went to Heppner’s nearly 1,500-acre ranch in East Texas. The Journal said that in 2019, chief financial officer Tiffany Kice, made the discoveries and left the company. Three board members and other c-suite executives left the company within months.

The company logo at Beneficient, a financial services company in Dallas that turns assets into cash for high-net-worth individuals, institutions and private equity funds.(Carly Geraci / Staff Photographer)

GWG Holdings, a company that invested in Beneficient, defaulted on $2 billion in debt last year and filed bankruptcy, leaving individual investors with as much as $1.3 billion in potential losses, the article reported.

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The Wall Street Journal is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. and Murdoch is chairman of Fox News Corp. which settled a two-year lawsuit in April by paying Dominion $787 million, believed to be a record settlement in a media case, to end the legal battle over the network spreading lies about the 2020 election.

Beneficient said in its complaint that “Gladstone has purposefully disregarded critical facts, distorted critical timelines and cherry-picked the information he has received to promote an overarching, pre-ordained conclusion: Brad Heppner, through his control of Beneficient and other companies, engineered self-serving transaction to enrich himself – and maintain a so-called ‘lavish lifestyle’ – at the expense of vulnerable and elderly ‘retail’ investors.”

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The complaint went on to say that Heppner can prove the statement is false and that Gladstone published his stories with “malice.”

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Gladstone hasn’t responded to a request for comment and The Wall Street Journal declined to comment. Beneficient declined to comment.

A Tweet from Gladstone a year ago called out Heppner’s ranch in Anderson County saying its debt was funded by transfers from Beneficient and its former parent company, GWG Holdings, which is in the process of a bankruptcy court-led reorganization.

Other prominent Twitter accounts piled on with likes and replies, according to Beneficient’s lawsuit.

“Gladstone’s Twitter audience — and others in the community — have taken Gladstone’s allegations at face value and now believe that Heppner and Beneficient acted improperly,” the lawsuit said.

Heppner purchased the Bradley Oaks Ranch in 2003, according to the lawsuit, which noted that was 16 years before GWG started investing what ended up being a total of $230 million in Beneficient.

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Beneficient disclosed in its annual filing that on June 29 the Securities and Exchange Commission notified the company and Heppner that the agency’s staff had made a preliminary determination to recommend that the SEC file a civil enforcement action against the company, alleging SEC violations relating to Beneficient’s association with GWG.

CEO, CFO resign from bankrupt GWG Holdings following internal review

Heppner said in the filing that he and the company intend “to vigorously defend himself and contests any allegations of wrongdoing.”

Beneficient had a partnership with GWG before separating into an independent company in November 2021, the lawsuit said. Heppner joined the GWG board in April 2019 as chairman, but the lawsuit says that he was not a member of the special committees that decided to invest in Beneficient.

GWG, which issued high-yield bonds that financed the purchase of life insurance policies on the secondary market, filed for bankruptcy in April 2022 after it missed interest payments to bondholders. GWG had previously disclosed that the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating its accounting practices, according to regulatory filings.

Current and former Beneficient and GWG board members are high-profile individuals including two former Federal Reserve Bank district presidents. Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach who built a large commercial real estate company is no longer a board member.

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Former Dallas Fed Bank president Richard Fisher, former Atlanta Fed president Dennis Lockhart and leverage buyout financier Tom Hicks are current Beneficient directors.

Friday’s article in the Wall Street Journal said Fisher, Lockhart and others have been accused in court filings of “of facilitating a Ponzi scheme orchestrated by Heppner.”

Beneficient went public in June after it was acquired last year by Avalon Acquisition with the intention of taking it public through its SPAC, or special purpose acquisition company structure. Beneficient ended up raising about $8 million from the IPO, according to the WSJ.

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Sources: Giants’ DeVito expected out vs. Dallas

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Sources: Giants’ DeVito expected out vs. Dallas


New York Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito is expected to be out for Thursday’s game against the Dallas Cowboys because of his forearm injury and Drew Lock is expected to start in his place, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Jordan Raanan.

DeVito is listed as questionable for the Thanksgiving Day game, but a source told ESPN on Wednesday that DeVito was considered a long shot to play.

He did not travel with the team to Dallas on Wednesday as he was undergoing further evaluation, the Giants said. The team, however, said it expected him to travel to Dallas later Wednesday.

DeVito took several big hits in Sunday’s 30-7 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was making his first start of the season after the Giants released former starter Daniel Jones late last week.

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The Giants turn to Lock after bypassing him following the benching of Jones for DeVito. Lock spent the first 10 weeks as the backup, with DeVito as the third string/emergency quarterback.

Lock has a short week and no real practices to get ready for the matchup of NFC East rivals. He also will be playing behind an offensive line without its starting tackles. Andrew Thomas (foot) is on injured reserve and Jermaine Eluemunor (quad) was ruled out Wednesday.



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Colorado visits Dallas after shootout victory

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Colorado visits Dallas after shootout victory


Associated Press

Colorado Avalanche (13-10, in the Central Division) vs. Dallas Stars (13-8, in the Central Division)

Dallas; Friday, 9 p.m. EST

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BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Stars -140, Avalanche +116; over/under is 6.5

BOTTOM LINE: The Dallas Stars host the Colorado Avalanche after the Avalanche took down the Vegas Golden Knights 2-1 in a shootout.

Dallas is 13-8 overall and 4-2-0 against the Central Division. The Stars have a 4-2-0 record in games they score at least one power-play goal.

Colorado is 13-10 overall and 2-3-0 against the Central Division. The Avalanche have a 2-5-0 record in games their opponents serve fewer penalty minutes.

The teams meet Friday for the first time this season.

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TOP PERFORMERS: Matt Duchene has 12 goals and 14 assists for the Stars. Mason Marchment has five goals and seven assists over the last 10 games.

Cale Makar has eight goals and 22 assists for the Avalanche. Mikko Rantanen has eight goals and seven assists over the past 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Stars: 6-4-0, averaging 3.7 goals, 6.4 assists, 3.1 penalties and 8.2 penalty minutes while giving up 2.8 goals per game.

Avalanche: 7-3-0, averaging three goals, 4.8 assists, 2.6 penalties and 5.2 penalty minutes while giving up 2.9 goals per game.

INJURIES: Stars: None listed.

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Avalanche: None listed.

___

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.




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Kidd breaks the silence, gives first update on Luka Doncic’s sudden wrist injury

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Kidd breaks the silence, gives first update on Luka Doncic’s sudden wrist injury


The Dallas Mavericks’ bad injury and availability luck this season continued into Wednesday evening, as Dallas will be without Daniel Gafford, Klay Thompson, Dante Exum, and Luka Doncic against the New York Knicks tonight.

While no one expected Doncic and Exum to play as they are both out with wrist injuries, both Thompson and Gafford had a chance at playing. Thompson will be out for the second straight game with left foot plantar fascia, and Gafford is out with an illness.

This illness has been no joke for Dallas, as both Quentin Grimes and Dereck Lively II were listed on the injury report, but both are available against the Knicks.

The Mavs have found a way to win two of the three games that Doncic has missed due to this sprained wrist that he unexpectedly suffered against the New Orleans Pelicans last Tuesday, and Mavs head coach Jason Kidd gave the first update on Doncic’s status when it comes to the wrist injury on Wednesday night.

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“He looks good,” Kidd said at his pregame media availability. “Everything that has come back that he looks good and is getting closer to coming back.”

Kidd then continued to talk about how Doncic has been going through “individual workouts,” and everything that he has “heard or seen is trending in the right direction.” He went through a pregame workout at the American Airlines Center with his wrist taped despite being out, and this is a good sign.

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It’s typical for Kidd and the Mavericks to limit what they tell the media when it comes to players’ injuries, but the fact that Doncic is going through workouts and responding well is a good sign. Doncic has not been able to catch a break this season, as he has dealt with a calf contusion, knee contusion, and this wrist sprain over the last two months, and this week-plus off should help get him back to being 100 percent.

He didn’t even seem to be 100 percent with his knee when he injured his wrist against New Orleans, and him getting this time of rest could be huge for him in returning to playing at an MVP level. This wrist injury happened so suddenly against the Pelicans, and even Doncic didn’t know the exact moment it happened. He said that the pain started early on in the game, and it got worse as the game went on. Doncic dubbed his wrist injury as “nothing serious” in his postgame press conference from last Tuesday night, but his availability lately says otherwise.

This season for Dallas, Doncic is averaging 28.1 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 7.6 assists per game while shooting 43.5 percent from the field and 32.4 percent from downtown, and while his numbers are down, Kidd remains confident in his superstar. Kidd emphasized that Doncic is still “human” last week when asked about his slow start to the season, and even though Dallas is finding ways to win without him, his return is going to help take this team to another level.

His teammates miss having him on the floor with them, and the Mavs are a completely different team when Doncic is fully healthy and cooking with gas. It has been a while since Mavs fans saw Doncic fully healthy considering the downpour of injuries that slowed him down during the playoffs, and he and Kyrie Irving will have the chance to help push this team back to the top of the Western Conference once he returns from this wrist injury.





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