Who Is Andrew Wiederhorn? FAT Brands, Indictment, and Bankruptcy

Andrew Wiederhorn is a Portland-born financier and restaurant franchising executive best known as the founder and former CEO of FAT Brands Inc., the publicly traded parent of Fatburger, Twin Peaks, Round Table Pizza, and more than a dozen other chains. Over three decades he built two corporate empires, was convicted of federal felonies once, indicted a second time on fraud and tax charges that were later dismissed, sued by the SEC and by his own shareholders, and finally pushed out of the company he founded when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2026. The through line across all of it, according to regulators and prosecutors, is a pattern of running public companies as if their cash belonged to him personally.

The 2004 Felony Convictions

Wiederhorn’s first major legal reckoning grew out of Wilshire Financial Services Group, the Portland distressed-debt firm he ran in the 1990s. Wilshire borrowed more than $150 million from Capital Consultants, a Portland investment advisor that managed roughly $1 billion in assets, most of it union pension money.¹ When Wilshire effectively failed, Capital Consultants concealed the losses and eventually collapsed, wiping out an estimated $350 million to $470 million in pension assets in one of the largest union pension frauds in American history.²

On June 3, 2004, Wiederhorn pleaded guilty in federal court in Oregon to paying an illegal gratuity to an employee-benefit-plan investment advisor and to filing a false tax return. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, a $25,000 fine, and $2 million in restitution, and ultimately served roughly 14 to 16 months.³

The day before the plea, the board of his holding company, Fog Cutter Capital Group, approved a “leave of absence agreement” that kept his $350,000 salary, bonuses, and benefits flowing while he was incarcerated, plus a $2 million lump sum the board knew he intended to use to pay his court-ordered restitution. Fog Cutter reported spending $4.75 million on the arrangement in a year the company posted a $3.93 million net loss.³ Nasdaq delisted the company, concluding the board had “put Wiederhorn’s interests above those of the shareholders.” The SEC upheld the delisting and the D.C. Circuit refused to disturb it.⁴

Building FAT Brands

After leaving prison, Wiederhorn returned to running Fog Cutter, which had acquired a majority stake in Fatburger in 2003. He used that stake as the seed of a franchise empire, moving the headquarters from Portland to Santa Monica and pushing an asset-light model in which most locations were owned by franchisees.⁵

In 2017 he founded FAT Brands Inc. as a new publicly traded vehicle. Between 2020 and 2023 the company bought 14 brands, including Global Franchise Group, Twin Peaks for $300 million, Fazoli’s for $130 million, and Smokey Bones. At its peak FAT Brands controlled more than 2,200 franchise and company-owned locations across 18 concepts in 40 countries.⁶ The acquisitions were funded through whole-business securitizations arranged by Jefferies, pledging brand cash flows as collateral for bonds. By the time of the 2026 bankruptcy filing, FAT Brands carried roughly $1.15 billion in securitized debt plus another $159 million in residual notes.⁷

The 2024 Federal Indictment

On May 9, 2024, a federal grand jury in the Central District of California indicted Wiederhorn, former CFO Rebecca D. Hershinger, tax advisor William J. Amon, and FAT Brands Inc. itself. Prosecutors alleged that between 2010 and early 2021, Wiederhorn extracted about $47 million from FAT Brands and Fog Cutter by mischaracterizing the money as “shareholder loans” that carried no collateral, no interest payments, no repayment schedule, and no independent oversight. The funds allegedly paid for private jet travel, luxury vacations, jewelry, a piano, and a Rolls-Royce Phantom worth nearly $500,000.⁸

Wiederhorn personally faced one count of endeavoring to obstruct the administration of the Internal Revenue Code, six counts of tax evasion, three counts of making false statements to auditors, and two counts of extending prohibited personal loans from a public company to an executive officer in violation of Sarbanes-Oxley. His unpaid personal income tax liability was approximately $7.7 million as of March 2021, according to the indictment.⁸ A separate indictment charged him with being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, based on the 2004 convictions.

Hershinger was charged with wire fraud, false statements to auditors, and lying to federal investigators, among other counts. Amon, a CPA and attorney, was charged with aiding and assisting the filing of false tax returns. All defendants pleaded not guilty.⁹

The day after the indictment, the SEC filed a parallel civil action alleging Wiederhorn had used about $27 million of FAT Brands’ cash for personal expenses, routing the money through Fog Cutter and stripping the company of roughly 40 percent of its revenue. The commission sought injunctions, civil penalties, disgorgement, and bars preventing Wiederhorn, Hershinger, and former CFO Ron Roe from serving as officers or directors of public companies.¹⁰

How the Criminal Case Was Dismissed

The prosecution unraveled in 2025. In March, the White House Presidential Personnel Office fired Adam Schleifer, the assistant U.S. attorney leading the case. Schleifer, a former Democratic congressional candidate, had been publicly targeted by Trump supporter Laura Loomer over anti-Trump comments from his earlier political run. His termination came through a direct White House email rather than through the Attorney General.¹¹

On July 29, 2025, the Department of Justice filed unopposed motions to dismiss every criminal charge against Wiederhorn, Hershinger, Amon, and FAT Brands, including the firearms count. The dismissal was without prejudice, according to Bloomberg Law.¹² Wiederhorn said he was “grateful to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for taking a fresh look at this case,” and his defense attorneys called it a case with “no victims, no losses and no crimes.”¹¹

The timing drew attention because of Wiederhorn’s political giving. During the 2024 cycle he contributed nearly $19,000 to Trump, the Save America PAC, the Republican National Committee, and the California Republican Party, with roughly half of that arriving in the weeks immediately after his indictment.¹² FAT Brands also donated $100,000 to Trump’s inauguration fund.¹³

The SEC case ended similarly. On March 27, 2026, it was dismissed with prejudice via joint stipulation. The commission said the decision was “based on the facts and circumstances of this case and in light of the evidence developed in discovery,” adding that it did “not reflect the SEC’s position on any other case.” No penalties, disgorgement, or officer-and-director bars were imposed.¹⁴

Shareholder Lawsuits and Corporate Control

Federal cases were not the only accountability track. In June 2021, shareholders filed a derivative suit in the Delaware Court of Chancery, Harris v. Junger, alleging Wiederhorn had been “running Fat Brands into the ground, and bleeding it of its cash.” The complaint challenged the 2020 merger between FAT Brands and Fog Cutter Capital, arguing it was designed to erase roughly $38.7 million in debt Fog Cutter owed FAT Brands and resulted in a $50.2 million loss to the company. Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock refused to dismiss the suit, finding it “reasonably conceivable” that the transaction was corporate waste or bad faith.¹⁵

A companion case challenged a 2021 recapitalization that created super-voting stock carrying 2,000 votes per share, which plaintiffs alleged gave Wiederhorn and his entities permanent control of FAT Brands without providing shareholders anything in return. In January 2025 the parties settled: the defendants paid $10 million in cash and surrendered 200,000 shares of Twin Hospitality Group stock, and FAT Brands agreed to governance reforms including an experienced CFO, controller, and general counsel and a standing Related Party Transactions Committee of independent directors.¹⁶

Boards were a recurring problem in the record against him. The SEC found Wiederhorn had “thorough control” over the Fog Cutter board despite its nominal independence.⁴ The 2024 indictment alleged that in March 2023, after directors communicated with the government about the criminal investigation, Wiederhorn removed every board member other than himself and reconstituted the board with a majority of non-independent directors under his control.⁸ His sons Taylor, Thayer, and Mason held positions inside the company until the bankruptcy forced them out.¹⁷

FAT Brands’ Bankruptcy and His Removal

The criminal charges went away. The debt did not. FAT Brands had piled up roughly $1.26 billion to $1.4 billion in obligations through its acquisition run, most of it in securitized notes taken on during the era of low interest rates. When rates rose, refinancing was off the table. Same-store sales dropped 3.5 percent in the third quarter of 2025, and UMB Bank alone accelerated nearly $160 million in secured debt and $9.9 million in interest. The company was left with roughly $2 million in unrestricted cash.¹⁸¹⁹

On January 26, 2026, FAT Brands and Twin Hospitality Group filed voluntary Chapter 11 petitions in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. The company’s chief restructuring officer said the securitization obligations had “starved the company of cash it needed to operate.” Wiederhorn described the federal investigation as a “gigantic waste of $75 million.”²⁰

In March 2026, as a condition of debtor-in-possession financing, Wiederhorn agreed to a leave of absence from his CEO and chairman roles. He would receive $3 million upfront and $2 million in installments but be “walled off” from company decisions, with future payments suspended if he violated the terms. His three sons were terminated, all remaining board members resigned, and an independent special committee took over governance. He retained the right to bid for the company in the sale process.¹⁷

In May 2026 the bankruptcy court approved the sale of FAT Brands’ assets in four transactions worth nearly $1 billion combined. A lender group known as FBG Bid Co. took most of the portfolio, including Round Table Pizza, Johnny Rockets, Fazoli’s, and Great American Cookies, for $595 million in converted debt. TWINPKS Bid Co. bought Twin Peaks for $359.5 million in converted debt. Hot Dog on a Stick sold for $8 million in cash, and Elevation Burger went to a Kuwaiti buyer for $2.5 million.²¹ Smokey Bones did not survive: after steady closures through 2024 and 2025, the last 20 locations shut down on April 28, 2026, with employees informed that morning.²²

The sale agreements approved by the bankruptcy court include provisions allowing the new owners to pursue litigation against former management.²¹

1
U.S. Senate HELP Committee. Testimony of Barclay Grayson Regarding Capital Consultants
2
Forbes. Andrew Wiederhorn Profile
3
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. SEC Opinion, In the Matter of Fog Cutter Capital Group
4
FindLaw. Fog Cutter Capital Group Inc. v. Securities and Exchange Commission
5
Nation’s Restaurant News. Q&A: Andrew Wiederhorn, Fog Cutter Capital
6
FAT Brands. FAT Brands Official Website
7
9fin. Fat Brands WBS
8
U.S. Department of Justice. Former CEO and Controlling Shareholder of Fat Brands Inc., Former CFO, and Tax Advisor Indicted
9
U.S. Department of Justice. United States v. Andrew Wiederhorn, William J. Amon, Rebecca D. Hershinger, and Fat Brands Inc.
10
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. SEC Litigation Release No. 26001
11
NBC News. DOJ Dismisses Case Against Fat Brands’ Andy Wiederhorn After Fired Prosecutor
12
Bloomberg Law. DOJ Drops Fraud Case Against Trump Donor, Ex-Fatburger Executive
13
CNBC. DOJ Drops Charges Against Fat Brands, Andy Wiederhorn
14
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. SEC Litigation Release No. 26510
15
Delaware Court of Chancery. Harris v. Junger, C.A. No. 2021-0511-SG
16
FAT Brands Investor Relations. FAT Brands Issues Notice of Settlement of Stockholder Derivative Actions
17
Nation’s Restaurant News. Fat Brands CEO Andy Wiederhorn Steps Down During Remainder of Bankruptcy Process
18
Restaurant Dive. Fat Brands Creditors Demand Repayment of $1 Billion Debt
19
Los Angeles Business Journal. It’s Chapter 11 for Fat Brands
20
Nation’s Restaurant News. What Will Happen to Fat Brands Post-Bankruptcy
21
Restaurant Business. Bankruptcy Court Approves Sale of Fat Brands to Multiple Buyers
22
News10. Barbecue Chain Which Once Boasted Over 100 Locations Abruptly Closes All Remaining Restaurants