N.C. insurance billionaire indicted on new business fraud charges

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - Billionaire insurance magnate Greg Lindberg has been indicted again by a federal grand jury. This second indictment is for charges related to alleged fraud Lindberg and his employees carried out through his network of insurance companies.

A grand jury indicted Lindberg on charges including conspiracy to defraud the United States, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy and two charges related to false statements about his business.

The indictment, handed down Thursday but made public on Friday by the Western District of North Carolina, comes after FBI agents spent years combing through his company’s financial records.

Previous: Federal prosecutors allege Lindberg, employees conspired to defraud N.C. Dept. of Insurance

Lindberg was indicted in 2019 in a public corruption case, along with two political operatives and then-N.C. Republican Party Chairman Robin Hayes, a former congressman. In that case, Lindberg was accused of trying to bribe Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey for favorable regulatory rulings on Lindberg’s insurance companies.

Hayes pleaded guilty but was later pardoned by then-President Donald Trump. Lindberg was convicted in the corruption case in 2020 but that conviction was later overturned. Federal prosecutors plan to re-try that case.

Thursday’s indictment in the business fraud case comes after two top employees in Lindberg’s insurance companies pleaded guilty.

WBTV first reported that a Lindberg employee pleaded guilty in December. A second employee pleaded guilty in January and entered into a cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors.

In a statement, Susan Estrich, Lindberg’s spokesperson, said the latest charges stem from the government’s spending over five years going through over 7 million documents on “literally thousands of complicated financial transactions involving over 900 companies” and handpicking alleged technical violations that did not cause any loss to N.C. policyholders or those in any other state.

“The Government is piling on. Their previous case against Greg Lindberg was built on lies and collapsed on appeal when the Court found his rights were violated,” Estrich’s statement read, in part. “Greg was wrongly convicted, his constitutional rights were violated, and he was sent to prison even though he did not ask for any official action, only for fair regulation, as he will prove when he is retried in November.”

N.C. Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey also issues a statement reacting to Lindberg’s indictment.

“The indictment issued by the grand jury yesterday paints a grim picture of an owner who has consistently put his private gain above the interest of the insurance companies’ policyholders to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars,” Causey said.

“The Department of Insurance is fully supportive of the government’s efforts to hold Mr. Lindberg and others responsible for their actions, and remains hopeful that this prosecution will result in the recovery of funds that can be used to repay policyholders. In the meantime, the Department will continue working to ensure that all of the policyholders are paid what they are owed.”

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