Raleigh, N.C. — Testimony started Monday in a civil lawsuit against a guy who was at the time North Carolina’s most significant political donor but is now serving federal time for seeking to bribe the state’s insurance plan commissioner.
Greg Lindberg’s very own coverage corporations, taken in excess of by the point out numerous a long time in the past, sued him in Wake County Top-quality Courtroom, accusing him of funneling company cash to himself. Lindberg himself monitored proceedings virtually Monday, from the prison camp in Alabama in which he’s serving much more than seven years.
The testimony was dense and technological as lawyers set the stage for their try to unwind the would-be billionaire’s sophisticated business enterprise arrangements. They want Remarkable Court docket Decide Graham Shirley to pressure Lindberg to stay up to a memorandum of knowledge he signed with the firms in 2019 and repay loans his insurance policies companies manufactured to other enterprises he also owns.
That MOU is the crux of the case. The 4 companies, with a point out-appointed rehabilitator contacting the photographs, argue it was a binding settlement in no way lived up to, which endangered other organization investors and folks who acquired annuities from the organizations but may perhaps under no circumstances get their promised return.
Lindberg’s legal staff states the MOU was simply an “arrangement to agree,” not an enforceable deal.
Lou Hensley, previously chief govt of Lindberg’s insurance plan corporations, testified Monday that he couldn’t recall how a lot of of Lindberg’s organizations insurance business cash went to. He stated lots of of individuals businesses had been even further engaged in transactions with each and every other and that it was tough to get an precise snapshot of them at a given time.
“It was virtually unachievable,” Hensley claimed Monday. “It was often shifting.”
Lindberg and his lawful crew have acknowledged his expense tactic was elaborate, but he denies any wrongdoing. He reported previous calendar year that the lawsuit is “filled with inaccurate and reckless allegations.”
There are indications federal investigators are also fascinated in Lindberg’s website of investments. Filings from this civil circumstance, unsealed last calendar year, exhibit that the condition-appointed rehabilitator overseeing the coverage organizations gained a federal subpoena probing the probable of financial fraud.
The FBI and federal prosecutors in the Western District of North Carolina, where by the subpoena was issued, have declined comment. It really is not known wherever that inquiry stands, but the Western District is also where by Lindberg was prosecuted past calendar year on independent bribery costs.
Insurance coverage companies produce cash flow from month to month rates, and Lindberg took these rates and invested them in other corporations he owned.
This is not strange in the coverage organization. What’s strange is how generally he did it. The field standard is to spend up to 10 p.c of holdings in these “affiliated corporations,” in accordance to marketplace experts, regulators and testimony made available Monday at demo. Extra is viewed as dangerous.
At one particular point, Lindberg’s organizations invested 40 p.c in affiliated companies, a thing previous Coverage Commissioner Wayne Goodwin’s administration signed off on when Lindberg moved his organizations to North Carolina.
Goodwin lost his re-election bid in 2016, and he labored briefly for Lindberg as a consultant after that. Lindberg was also a key campaign donor, but Goodwin has explained repeatedly that he under no circumstances took any motion in return for contributions, that he cooperated with federal investigators and that he was by no means a goal of their inquiry.
In early 2019 The Wall Street Journal published a deep-dive into Lindberg’s empire, suggesting that insurance policies premiums invested by way of shell businesses assisted finance his lavish way of life. Among the his holdings at the time: The most costly private household ever purchased in Raleigh and a 214-foot yacht called the “Double Down.”
This was all right before Lindberg was indicted, and eventually convicted, of attempting to bribe state Insurance plan Commissioner Mike Causey, who had defeated Goodwin in the 2016 elections.
Causey’s workforce pressed Lindberg and his firms to substantially reduce their affiliated investments, and Lindberg presented marketing campaign contributions if Causey would get a notably bothersome regulator off his again.
He also lobbied the condition legislature to alter North Carolina regulation in a way that would have permit him maintain holding additional revenue in these investments, but the exertion was unsuccessful.
There ended up 11 attorneys in the courtroom Monday as the civil case, Southland v. Lindberg, obtained underway. At the rear of them, 33 binders of depositions and other evidence stuffed nearly additional than 50 % a courtroom bench or have been lined up on the ground.
The corporations, Southland Nationwide, Bankers Existence, Colorado Bankers Lifestyle and Countrywide Reinsurance, claimed in court filings before in the circumstance that they experience a opportunity shortfall of more than $1 billion and that plan holders could see “extreme losses” from the annuities the providers sold.
Condition coverage regulators mentioned Monday the corporations have extra than 262,000 policy holders, which include about 6,000 in North Carolina.
Lindberg requested consistently to go to the demo, which may well very last various months, in man or woman and to be allow out of jail to show up at a memorial provider for his father, who died just lately. The federal Bureau of Prisons denied his ask for, as did the choose in his federal felony scenario in North Carolina and a further federal choose in Alabama.
In 1 of the filings, Lindberg provided letters of support from several people he is accomplishing time with, who stated he is training an entrepreneurship class at the jail.
To a gentleman, they sang his praises.
“He is a pillar in the community,” 1 wrote. “Even nevertheless I’ve known him for a shorter period of time, I believe that he deserves a 2nd opportunity. … The globe awaits his return. Hopefully you will digest this letter and established this constructive power power named Greg Lindberg free of charge.”
Correction: An initial edition of this submit gave incomplete figures for the amount of coverage holders these businesses have. The quantities have been updated.