Bentonville broker sues amid deal to ‘seize control’ of his companies, court records show

A broker with a Bentonville-based commercial real estate firm has filed a lawsuit in Benton County Circuit Court, claiming a deal to combine his companies under a holding company was fraudulent, misrepresented and a means to force him from the companies.

Grady Mathews, co-founder and principal broker of Genesis Commercial and founder and manager of Versailles Property Management, both in Bentonville, is suing Scott Audrain of Fayetteville and Anchor Asset Management Group.

The case, filed Jan. 8, has been assigned to Judge Christine Horwart of the 19th West Circuit Division 7 in Bentonville. Todd Lewis and Brian Thomas, both of Conner & Winters LLP in Fayetteville, are representing the complainants. As of Friday (Jan. 23), the court filing has yet to show an attorney for the respondents.

Asked for a statement on the lawsuit, Audrain said, “I have no comment.”

The complainants are seeking an injunction to void the deal with Audrain and Anchor Asset Management Group, to have Mathews retain control of Genesis and Versailles, and to prevent the respondents from interfering in the companies. The complainants are also seeking compensation for damages and attorneys’ fees. A jury trial is demanded.

“It has now become painfully clear that the Anchor venture was used as a mechanism for Audrain to seize control of Genesis and Versailles along with the assets and client relationships Mathews had built over 22 years,” court records show. “To accomplish all of this, Audrain has violated Arkansas law, committed multiple tortious acts against Mathews and the Mathews entities, and created numerous and serious violations of (Arkansas Real Estate Commission) rules and regulations for a brokerage company that solely depends on remaining in the good graces of the AREC.”

According to court documents, Mathews and Audrain started to discuss a business proposal in early 2025 to bring Genesis and Versailles into a group of investors, raise capital, and form two new operating entities – including Anchor Asset Management Group – “in a first step toward creating a scalable, multilevel company that would buy, sell and manage real estate.”

As part of the deal, Audrain was to contribute $50,000 to a new limited liability company, Anchor Asset Holdings, in return for 24% interest. Anchor Asset Holdings was to serve as the holding company and the sole member of Anchor Asset Management Group. However, court documents show Audrain contributed only $30,000 to Anchor Asset Management Group, not to the holding company. And at the time, Audrain owned Anchor Asset Management Group and was its sole member.

“Mathews relied on Audrain’s representations (made either directly by Audrain or by his counsel) that (Anchor Asset Management Group’s) membership would be/was held by (Anchor Asset Holdings),” court documents show. “It was not.”

Relying on Audrain’s representations that the deal’s conditions had been met, Mathews contributed his membership interests in Genesis and Versailles to Anchor Asset Management Group in return for 24% of membership interest in the holding company. Within 60 days of the July 1 deal, Mathews learned that Audrain – “the architect of the Anchor venture – made multiple material misrepresentations to induce Mathews to contribute his Genesis and Versailles membership interest to (Anchor Asset Management Group).”

According to court documents, Mathews agreed to the deal with “Audrain’s representation that Mathews would continue to manage Genesis and serve as its principal broker.” Another condition of the deal was that capital partner Ted Belden, a close friend of Audrain’s, would contribute $250,000 to the holding company. Instead, Audrain deposited the money into Anchor Asset Management Group.

About three weeks after receiving the $250,000 contribution, Audrain paid $4,000 to another limited liability company he owned. Three weeks later, he paid $4,000 to his nephew Ramsey Jones using the Genesis bank account. Jones, who’s not a Genesis agent, and Audrain had a spreadsheet showing their intent to pay themselves a total of $96,000 in $4,000 monthly installments, court documents show.

After Mathews confronted Audrain about this, “Audrain accelerated and escalated his efforts to improperly assume unilateral control over the Mathews entities,” according to court documents. He removed Mathews from control of the Genesis bank account and financial records, transferred all employees to Anchor Asset Management Group, and “directed those employees not to communicate with or recognize Mathews as having any authority over Genesis, despite Mathews’ role as Genesis’ principal broker and sole manager of both Mathews entities.”

On Nov. 11, Audrain’s counsel prepared “documents purporting to strip Mathews of managerial authority and control over the Mathews entities and the Anchor venture entirely,” court documents show. Audrain also collaborated with his son, Brad Audrain, who was the principal broker for Versailles, and others to try to remove Mathews as the principal broker of Genesis and replace him with Brad Audrain.

“As part of his takeover, (Scott) Audrain caused formal-appearing but improper documents to be submitted to the Arkansas Real Estate Commission falsely stating to the AREC that Mathews was no longer Genesis’ principal broker and requesting that the AREC recognize his son, Brad Audrain, in that role,” court documents show. “The AREC ultimately rejected this attempted unlawful change.”

After this, Anchor Asset Management Group began using Genesis funds to pay people associated with other entities, including a commission to Brad Audrain of Versailles, who was not a Genesis agent, “rather than to Versailles, in violation of applicable AREC and Arkansas Realtors Association rules and regulations,” court documents show. “These actions have compromised Genesis’ proper handling of brokerage funds and have interfered with its ability to maintain regulatory compliance… This has resulted in Genesis (and potentially Versailles) being flagged for increased scrutiny by the AREC, creating immediate and unnecessary regulatory risk.”

According to court documents, Scott Audrain and Anchor Asset Management Group influenced Zack Kifer, a member of the ownership group, and Jennifer Hennely, an employee of Anchor Asset Management Group, to lock Mathews out of Genesis’ office and directed Hennelly to remove Mathews from all of his real estate listings in the firm’s Costar listing platform and move them to Kifer.

Mathews had to call Costar to reverse this. The same group also took framed copies of Mathews’ and Genesis’ real estate licenses from the office. In anticipation of this, Mathews had placed the original licenses in a lockbox within a locked cabinet in his office.

Scott Audrain and Anchor Asset Management Group also provided Signature Bank with information that prevented Mathews from using the Genesis operating account and refused to pay Mathews commission that he’d earned as principal broker. He was also removed from the Genesis website.

Mathews said he tried to resolve these issues “internally and without disruption to employees, clients or regulators.” In response, he received an email from Kifer regarding a “separation proposal” to demand that Mathews “immediately relinquish all equity in the Mathews entities and the Anchor venture.” Scott Audrain and other Anchor venture members were included in the email, which claimed that Mathews had been removed as the principal broker of Genesis: “We have notified the AREC of such change.” Mathews was given until the end of the next business day to comply with the demand. He was also told to remove his personal items from the office by the end of the week.

“(Scott) Audrain, (Anchor Asset Management Group), and others working with them, have violated Arkansas law, potentially breached Genesis’ contracts with its clients, blatantly violated AREC rules and regulations, made numerous material misrepresentations to clients, the AREC, and Signature Bank in an attempt to unlawfully remove Mathews from Genesis, where he is its principal broker,” court documents show. “Also, this entire matter has been tainted by Audrain’s fraud and the unlawful conduct of Audrain, Kifer, (Anchor Asset Management Group), and those working with them to effectuate this scheme.”