By Jasper Ward

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Bradley Heppner, the former chair of bankrupt financial services company GWG Holdings and founder of alternative asset firm Beneficent, was indicted on five charges including securities fraud and wire fraud, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Tuesday.

The charges stem from allegations that Heppner engaged in a scheme to steal more than $150 million from the then publicly traded GWG while serving as its chairman, according to an indictment unsealed in the Southern District of New York where the charges were filed.

The indictment also alleges that Heppner, 59, was able to do this by extracting funds from GWG through a “series of misrepresentations about and self-serving transactions with” Highland Consolidated, a shell company that the department s

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