- A federal judge has ordered the forfeiture of $1.4 million tied to a bribery case against former top North Carolina political donor Greg Lindberg.
- A jury found Lindberg and co-defendant John Gray guilty in a May retrial on bribery and fraud charges. Federal authorities say Lindberg and Gray attempted to bribe state Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey after the 2016 election. Lindberg and Gray await sentencing in the case.
- US District Judge Max Cogburn's order targeted money in two accounts held by the North Carolina Growth and Prosperity Alliance and the North Carolina Growth and Prosperity Committee.
A federal judge has approved forfeiture of more than $1.4 million tied to the bribery case against former top North Carolina political donor Greg Lindberg.
A jury found Lindberg and co-defendant John Gray guilty in May in a retrial on federal bribery and fraud charges. Lindberg and Gray await new sentences in the case.
US District Judge Max Cogburn’s order Monday applied to funds the FBI seized while investigating Lindberg and other defendants. The order indicated that the money was tied directly to the attempted bribery of state Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey after the 2016 election.
Causey helped federal authorities make their case against Lindberg. That included the insurance commissioner wearing a surveillance wire during conversations with Lindberg.
Cogburn’s order specifically cited $979,128.63 in a Wells Fargo bank account under the name North Carolina Growth and Prosperity Alliance Inc., along with $475,629.82 in a separate Wells Fargo account under the name North Carolina Growth and Prosperity Committee Inc.
“Defendants set up and controlled the entities that held the Funds, opened Wells Fargo accounts in the names of the entities, and funded the accounts of the entities for the express purpose of bribing the North Carolina Commissioner of Insurance and hiding the source of funds used to bribe the Commissioner,” Cogburn wrote.
Cogburn detailed a “scheme by the conspirators to bribe the North Carolina Insurance Commissioner so he would remove a staff member who was overseeing investigation of Lindberg’s insurance companies.”
“At the retrial, the Court admitted recorded conversations and corresponding transcripts involving the conspirators, testimony, and documentary evidence on the conspirators’ plan to create entities with some level of anonymity to hold the Funds provided by Lindberg and to then use the Funds to bribe the Commissioner to remove an employee overseeing the regulation of Lindberg’s companies,” Cogburn explained.
“Indeed, Defendant Gray noted in a recorded conversation that, although another individual would be in-charge of the entities on paper, Defendants Gray and Lindberg would direct the entities and the entities would provide anonymity as to the source of the moneys directed to the Commissioner,” the judge continued.
“Thereafter, the Funds were deposited, in the form of a $500,000 check and a $1,000,000 check from Lindberg, into the accounts from which the FBI ultimately seized the Funds,” Cogburn wrote. John Palermo, a third defendant in the case, “confirmed via email to Lindberg and Gray that the funds were deposited and that, ‘[i]n essence, for your conversations with [the Insurance Commissioner], the 2 entities are ready to go.’”
Lindberg, Gray, Palermo, and a fourth defendant were joined for the original trial in February and March 2020. One defendant, former state Republican Party Chairman Robin Hayes, entered a guilty plea before the trial. Then-President Donald Trump pardoned Hayes in January 2021. A jury acquitted Palermo.
The jury convicted Lindberg and Gray. Lindberg faced a seven-year prison sentence. Gray was sentenced to 30 months in prison. The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals later threw out both convictions in June 2022 because of problems related to jury instructions.
A second federal trial related to a separate 13-count indictment against Lindberg has been delayed. Originally scheduled in 2023, that case has been pushed back until after the bribery and fraud case is resolved.
Before the legal action against him, Lindberg had attracted attention as a top donor to political campaigns in North Carolina. He supported Democratic Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin’s unsuccessful 2016 re-election bid. Goodwin lost to Causey.
Later Lindberg became the largest financial contributor in 2017 to the NC Republican Party and two groups supporting then-Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, a Republican. Forest lost the 2020 governor’s race to the incumbent Democrat, Gov. Roy Cooper.