The long-running saga of troubled financier and former Bankers Life Insurance Co. owner Greg Lindberg entered a new phase Tuesday when Lindberg pleaded guilty to orchestrating a $2 billion fraud.
Lindberg, who was convicted for a second time in May of trying to bribe North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey, also promised to help a special master wind down his extensive assets to reimburse long-suffering policyholders.
Lindberg was ordered to surrender to the U.S. Marshals Service on Tuesday and requested to be placed in a residential complex near his home in Tampa, Florida.
By doing so, Lindberg told the court, it will help him and his representatives “transfer billions of dollars in assets in the near future to trustees or a Special Master for full payment of restitution to all policyholders and other entities entitled have a refund. ”
In the more than five years since his first bribery indictment, Lindberg has fought every legal point through a team of lawyers and investigators.
Lindberg was convicted of bribery and fraud in 2020, along with associate John Gray, and served 633 days behind bars before the conviction was overturned due to incorrect jury instructions. Lindberg and Gray face 30 years in prison after their second guilty plea.
‘Carefully orchestrated plan’
Lindberg’s plea Tuesday complies with a 48-page indictment handed down by a federal grand jury in February 2023. accuses Lindberg and two co-conspirators of illegal siphoning huge sums of money from Lindberg’s insurance companies for his personal use, then lied to regulators to hide their $2 billion scheme.
“The indictment reveals a carefully orchestrated scheme that relied on a web of complex financial investments and transactions designed to evade regulators, obscure the financial health of Lindberg’s insurance companies, and conceal the scheme’s alleged purpose: Lindberg’s personal gain,” the US attorney said. Dena J. King at the time of the indictment. “People buy insurance products to provide comfort and security. However, this indictment alleges that this was a sophisticated and elaborate scheme designed for one reason, to benefit Lindberg.”
Lindberg is specifically charged with one count each of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and wire fraud; four counts of making false insurance statements to regulators; and six counts of false statements about the financial circumstances or solvency of an insurance company.
The case was investigated by the FBI’s Charlotte office. The money laundering and bank fraud charges alone carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison; the conspiracy to defraud the government carries up to 10 years.
As part of his plea agreement, “Mr. Lindberg has promised to ‘take all necessary and reasonable steps’ within his power to secure assets sufficient to make full restitution to the policyholders of his insurance companies’ no later than 30 days after the issuance of the settlement’. the first draft presentation report issued by the United States Probation Office in this matter. ”
In his request to be housed in Tampa until he is sentenced, Lindberg notes that he has “eight children under the age of seven currently living with him in Tampa” and that he is “the only parent caring for these children as his fiance. Olivia Molina does not have a US visa and lives in Spain.”
Assembly problems
Lindberg, founder of the private equity firm Eli Global, eventually acquired several insurers and grouped them under the name Global Bankers Insurance Group. Underwriting profits soared and eventually allowed Lindberg to funnel $2 billion to Eli Global, according to a Wall Street Journal report. That attracted regulators and led to Lindberg’s downfall.
Lindberg entered into a special agreement with former insurance commissioner Wayne Goodwin, allowing him to invest up to 40% of his insurance companies’ assets in affiliated business entities. In November 2016, Goodwin lost his seat to Causey, who reduced the limit on affiliate investments from 40% to 10%.
Prosecutors say Lindberg and Gray Causey gave, offered and promised millions of dollars in campaign contributions and other things of value in exchange for the removal of his senior deputy commissioner, who was responsible for regulatory oversight and periodic investigations of Lindbergs Global Bankers Insurance. Group.
On June 27, 2019, Southland National Insurance Corp., Colorado Bankers Life Insurance Co., Bankers Life Insurance Co. and Southland National Reinsurance Corp. – all property of Lindberg – were placed in rehabilitation by order of the Superior Court of Wake County, North Carolina.
Since then, regulators have worked to dismantle the complex financial web of companies and accounts controlled by Lindberg.
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InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other topics in daily journalism for more than two decades. John can be reached at (email protected). Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.