Insurance magnate pleads guilty as government describes $2B scheme

abcnews.go.com:

An insurance magnate who was once a big political donor in North Carolina has pleaded guilty related to what prosecutors call a $2 billion scheme to defraud insurance regulators, policyholders and others

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — An insurance magnate who was once a big political donor in North Carolina is in federal custody after pleading guilty in connection to what prosecutors call a $2 billion scheme to defraud insurance regulators, policyholders and others through a myriad of companies from which he skimmed funds for personal benefit.

Greg E. Lindberg, 54, of Tampa, Florida, entered the plea on Tuesday in Charlotte before U.S. Magistrate Judge David Keesler to one count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to legal documents.

Lindberg, who had been indicted on 13 counts in February 2023, could face a maximum of 10 years in prison on the money laundering conspiracy count and five years on the other conspiracy count, a U.S. Department of Justice news release said.

Lindberg, who lived previously in Durham, North Carolina, was already awaiting sentencing after he and an associate were convicted in May by a federal jury of attempting to bribe North Carolina's elected insurance commissioner to secure preferential regulatory treatment for his insurance business. The two had initially been convicted on two counts in 2020, but a federal appeals court vacated those convictions and ordered new trials.

A document signed by Lindberg and government lawyers serving as the factual basis for Tuesday's plea said that from no later than 2016 through at least 2019 Lindberg and others conspired to engage in crimes associated with insurance business, wire