Who gets to direct GloriFi’s bankruptcy claims has become a central issue in a fight seeking more than $1 billion. The self-styled “anti-woke” bank, which promised to serve Americans who felt abandoned by liberal Wall Street, filed for bankruptcy in February 2023 with roughly $600,000 in assets against about $40 million in liabilities. More than three years later, its collapse has drawn two Republican candidates for governor into the litigation.
According to The New York Times, Georgia gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson poured millions more into GloriFi and now decides who gets sued in its bankruptcy.
GloriFi emerged in 2022 as a financial hub built around faith, freedom and free enterprise, according to court filings cited by the Times, rejecting environmental, social and governance investing principles and even planning credit cards made from metal used for shell casings. Neugebauer, a Texas billionaire and Republican donor, founded the company and ran it from his Texas mansion — a replica of the White House that went on the market for $40 million in 2024, the Times reports. He worked with Nick Ayers, Mike Pence's former chief of staff, to assemble a roster of investors that included Peter Thiel, Ken Griffin, Jeff Sprecher and Vivek Ramaswamy, with Candace Owens brought on to help pitch the venture, according to the trustee's original complaint.
A Billion-Dollar Lawsuit Against the Bank's Own Lawyers
The bankruptcy trustee's complaint alleges GloriFi was close to a de-SPAC transaction valuing it at approximately $1.7 billion before its Chapter 7 collapse. The estate now seeks more than $1 billion in damages in an adversary proceeding before Judge Michelle V. Larson in the Northern District of Texas. Bloomberg Law reports that the trustee sued Neugebauer, Winston & Strawn and one of its partners in a suit seeking more than $1.7 billion. The complaint alleges the firm violated its fiduciary duty by favoring Neugebauer's personal demands over the company's interests.
What a Chapter 7 Trustee Controls
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California describes a Chapter 7 trustee as appointed to take control of certain debtor assets, bring them into the estate, and sell or distribute them for creditors.
Neugebauer has asked to intervene in that case to defend himself against allegations of fraud and self-dealing, seeking a declaratory judgment that he did not breach any fiduciary duties and asking that GloriFi cover his legal-defense fees, Bloomberg Law reports. The bankruptcy estate trustee has opposed many of his claims.
A Sprawling Court Fight
The Times describes the legal fight as sprawling and involving scores of creditors.
Vivek Ramaswamy, now a Republican candidate for governor of Ohio, was among GloriFi's investors.
Why a Governor's Race Hangs Over the Courtroom
Jackson runs a health-care staffing company, the Times reports. Georgia paid hundreds of millions of dollars to his staffing company during the pandemic, and a Jackson staffing subsidiary settled a federal lawsuit brought by immigrant nurses, who claimed they were exploited by the company, for $3 million this summer, according to the Times.
Jackson's authority over the litigation has also raised questions about potential conflicts if he becomes governor. Norm Eisen, who served as White House ethics counsel during the Obama administration, told the Times the arrangement could create an extreme conflict of interest and recommended separating Jackson from the litigation and appointing an independent trustee. Ethics experts cited by Zetik likewise warned that control over claims against creditors could pose conflicts for a governor.
The bankruptcy fight is not Jackson's only legal entanglement this year. He filed two lawsuits against primary opponent Burt Jones, Georgia's lieutenant governor and a Trump ally, earlier in 2026 before dropping them, the Times reports, and he now faces a retaliatory $100 million defamation suit from Jones Petroleum, the company founded by Jones's father. Jackson has said everybody was on the potential target list. His private investment firm separately claimed roughly $90 million in tax deductions for four money-losing films, a move that led to three court battles with the Internal Revenue Service; one was resolved without penalties after a 2023 trial, with his company's sought deductions reduced, while two IRS cases remain ongoing, according to the Times.
Neugebauer, for his part, was also ousted from Fermi America, a company developing private electric grids, the Times reports. Jeff Sprecher was among GloriFi's investors.
