Greg Lindberg: Insurance Fraud, Bribery, and Collapse

Greg Lindberg is a North Carolina businessman and convicted felon who built a conglomerate of more than 120 companies and then used the insurance firms inside it as a personal bank. In May 2026, a federal judge sentenced him to 12 years in prison for a roughly $2 billion fraud and money laundering scheme that bankrupted multiple insurance companies, and for a separate scheme to bribe North Carolina’s insurance commissioner. He was ordered to pay $1.655 billion in restitution.¹²

From a Folding Table to a $1.4 Billion Conglomerate

Lindberg started his first company at 21, while still a Yale undergraduate, with $5,000 from his parents and a folding table. The business was a health insurance compliance newsletter called Eli’s Home Care Week, published under the name Eli Research.³⁴ He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1993.

Federal budget cuts nearly killed the newsletter business in 1998. Lindberg diversified, and over the next two decades made more than 125 acquisitions across healthcare technology, business software, collectibles authentication, financial services, and insurance. Renamed Global Growth in 2020, the company reported peak revenue of $1.4 billion and more than 8,500 employees.⁴

The decisive move came in 2014, when Lindberg bought four insurance companies and placed them under Global Bankers Insurance Group: Colorado Bankers Life Insurance Company, Bankers Life Insurance Company, Southland National Insurance Corporation, and Southland National Reinsurance Corporation. Those four firms would sit at the center of everything that came next.⁵

The $2 Billion Insurance Fraud

Prosecutors described a years-long scheme in which Lindberg caused the insurance companies he controlled to invest more than $2 billion in loans and securities with his own affiliated businesses, moving the money through a web of circular transactions. He then “forgave” more than $125 million in loans he had personally taken from those insurers, using the proceeds for mansions, private jets, and a 200-foot yacht.¹

To keep the scheme alive, Lindberg and his associates concealed the insurers’ true financial condition from the North Carolina Department of Insurance and other regulators, misrepresenting solvency and hiding the circular nature of the transactions. The money moved through entities in North Carolina, Bermuda, Malta, and other jurisdictions.⁶

A federal grand jury in the Western District of North Carolina indicted Lindberg on 14 counts in February 2023, charging conspiracy to commit wire fraud, investment adviser fraud, and insurance fraud; wire fraud; false insurance business statements to regulators; false entries about the financial condition of an insurance business; and money laundering conspiracy.⁷⁶

The Bribery of Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey

The second case grew out of Lindberg’s attempt to neutralize the office that was supposed to regulate him. After Mike Causey won the North Carolina insurance commissioner race in November 2016, Lindberg sent an unusual $10,000 personal donation, which Causey returned. Lindberg then routed $500,000 to the state Republican Party with $110,000 earmarked for Causey’s campaign. Causey refused the earmarked money, declined a proposed fundraiser, and went to the FBI.⁸

Causey agreed to cooperate. For roughly eight months in 2018, he wore an FBI wire and recorded calls and in-person meetings with Lindberg and his associates.⁹ What Lindberg wanted was the removal of Senior Deputy Commissioner Jackie Obusek, the official examining his Global Bankers insurers, and her replacement with someone more compliant. What he offered was millions in campaign support.¹

The recordings captured the quid pro quo in plain language. During a July 25, 2018, meeting, Lindberg consultant John Gray told Causey that if he agreed to the staff change and set a firm date, “the entirety of that $500,000 will go right in your account.” The day after that meeting, Causey’s campaign received $230,000 routed through the state Republican Party.⁸

Lindberg was indicted in March 2019 along with Gray, Eli Global vice president John Palermo, and Robin Hayes, then chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party.⁸ A jury convicted Lindberg in 2020, and the trial judge sentenced him to 87 months. The Fourth Circuit vacated the verdict in June 2022 and ordered a retrial, ruling that the trial court had wrongly instructed the jury that the removal of the senior deputy commissioner was an “official act” as a matter of law.¹⁰ A second jury convicted Lindberg and Gray again in May 2024 on conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds.¹¹

Lindberg’s bribery conviction was part of a broader pattern. Between 2016 and 2018, he personally contributed $5.5 million to candidates and party committees in both parties in North Carolina, with another $580,000 coming from family members, firms, and associates. His nonprofit, the American Growth and Opportunity Alliance, also moved money to national dark money groups.¹²¹³

The 12-Year Sentence and $1.655 Billion Restitution Order

On May 26, 2026, U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn Jr. sentenced Lindberg to a combined 12 years in federal prison, resolving both the fraud and money laundering case and the bribery and honest services wire fraud conviction. Lindberg had asked for four years, citing time already served. Prosecutors had asked for more than 14.¹¹⁴

Court-appointed special master Joseph Grier III spent 15 months reviewing financial records and in April 2026 recommended $1.6 billion in restitution to seven insurance and financial firms in North Carolina and Bermuda.¹⁵ Judge Cogburn ordered $1.655 billion: $973 million for Colorado Bankers Life, Bankers Life, and Southland National, and $682 million for former Global Bankers affiliates in Bermuda. A separate forfeiture order calls for roughly $200 million in assets, with the final figure to depend on what can be traced to the crimes.¹⁶

Grier estimated Lindberg’s total assets at between $1.2 billion and $1.9 billion, and valued the primary restitution assets at roughly $1.16 billion, meaning they are “not likely” to cover the full amount owed. Restitution flows to the affected companies and to the state guaranty associations that paid policyholder claims, not to individual policyholders directly.¹⁵ Lindberg has acknowledged an outstanding restitution balance of $3.69 billion and said he has already contributed “hundreds of millions of dollars” toward recovery.¹⁴

What Happened to the Insurance Companies and Policyholders

In June 2019, Lindberg agreed that the four insurers he had bought in 2014 would enter rehabilitation under state regulatory control.⁵ Southland National Insurance Corporation was later placed into liquidation, and in late 2022 a North Carolina court ordered the liquidation of Bankers Life Insurance Company and Colorado Bankers Life Insurance Company as well.¹⁷ Commissioner Causey said the diversion of funds caused irreparable harm and that Lindberg’s court challenges to the liquidation orders delayed benefits to policyholders.¹⁸

Policyholders with claims against the liquidated companies have access to state guaranty associations, which cover up to $300,000 per person.¹⁸ A limited receiver appointed by the trial court continues to monitor Lindberg’s holding company, Global Growth Holdings. In December 2025, the North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed stringent controls, including court approval for any transaction above $5,000.⁵

The Pardon Push and Possible State Charges

Even before sentencing, Lindberg was pressing for a presidential pardon. In October 2025 he hired Keith Schiller, a former Trump bodyguard turned lobbyist, to advocate on his behalf.¹⁹²⁰

A federal pardon would not reach state-level liability. Wiley Nickel, the uncontested Democratic candidate for Wake County District Attorney, said he will open an investigation into possible state criminal charges against Lindberg when he takes office in 2027. “No federal action can limit North Carolina’s independent authority to enforce state law,” Nickel said. Senator Tillis has said Lindberg “violated state law and should be prosecuted.”²¹

1
U.S. Department of Justice. Owner of Multinational Investment Company Sentenced for $2B Fraud, Money Laundering, and Bribery
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NCDOI. Insurance Commissioner Causey Comments on Greg Lindberg Sentencing
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Global Growth. About Global Growth
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PR Newswire. Greg Lindberg, Founder of Global Growth, Releases New Book
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Insurance Business Magazine. Court Blocks Lindberg’s Bid to Ease Grip on $1.2B Insurer Empire
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CBS17. Former Durham Insurance Executive Sentenced to Federal Prison for Role in $2 Billion Fraud Scheme
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U.S. Department of Justice. United States v. Greg E. Lindberg
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FindLaw. United States v. Lindberg, No. 20-4470
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Charlotte Observer. FBI Sting Operation on Greg Lindberg
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U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. United States v. Lindberg, No. 20-4470
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Spectrum News. Donor and Consultant Convicted Again of Trying to Bribe NC Insurance Commissioner
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NC Newsline. Campaign Watchdog: Details of Greg Lindberg’s Political Spending Spree
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Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Convicted Insurance Exec’s Nonprofit Contributed to National Dark Money Groups
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WRAL. Greg Lindberg Sentenced to Prison
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Insurance Journal. Special Master Recommends $1.6B in Lindberg Restitution
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ThinkAdvisor. Greg Lindberg, Global Bankers Founder, Gets 12-Year Prison Sentence
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AM Best. North Carolina Court Orders Liquidation of Two Life Insurance Companies
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NCDOI. I Sent a Letter to President Trump Regarding Greg Lindberg
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Insurance Journal. NC Insurance Commissioner Urges Trump Not to Pardon Greg Lindberg
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NCDOI. Commissioner Causey Urges President Trump Not to Pardon Greg Lindberg
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News & Observer. Greg Lindberg Sentenced to More Than 12 Years in Prison