{"id":349868,"date":"2026-09-18T02:12:42","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T02:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/349868\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T02:12:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T02:12:42","slug":"lindberg-sues-nc-insurance-commissioner-in-new-york-federal-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/349868\/","title":{"rendered":"Lindberg sues NC insurance commissioner in New York federal court"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former top North Carolina political donor Greg Lindberg has filed a federal lawsuit<\/a> in New York against state Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey, two other men, and a law firm. The suit alleges an illegal \u201ccoordinated scheme\u201d against Lindberg for \u201cself-enrichment and political retribution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Causey\u2019s office declined to comment on the suit.<\/p>\n

Lindberg filed the suit on Sept. 10 while behind bars in FCI Atlanta, a low-security federal prison.<\/p>\n

He was sentenced in May to 12 years in prison in connection with two separate legal actions. One involved a conviction on charges related to Lindberg\u2019s attempt to bribe Causey after the 2016 election. The second involved a guilty plea to charges arising from a multibillion-dollar insurance fraud case.<\/p>\n

A special master<\/a> has called for Lindberg to pay $1.655 billion in restitution related to the fraud case.<\/p>\n

His new suit alleges violations of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. It also alleges conversion, breach of fiduciary duty, civil conspiracy, and unjust enrichment.<\/p>\n

Lindberg names Causey as a defendant, along with Michael Dinius, Mohsin \u201cMo\u201d Meghji, and the Williams Mullen firm. Dinius is listed as Causey\u2019s appointed special deputy rehabilitator of \u201cthe North Carolina Insurance Companies,\u201d Lindberg\u2019s name for insurance companies he owned and controlled until 2018. Meghji is CEO of M3 Partners and acting CEO of NHC Holdings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis civil RICO action arises from a coordinated scheme by a North Carolina state official and his confederates who weaponized North Carolina\u2019s insurance-rehabilitation statutes \u2014 and then a federal criminal restitution proceeding \u2014 into a vehicle for systematic self-enrichment and political retribution,\u201d Lindberg wrote. \u201cDefendants Mike Causey, Michael Dinius, Mo Meghji, and Williams Mullen, P.C., operating as an association-in-fact enterprise (the \u2018Enterprise\u2019) headquartered at 1700 Broadway, 19th Floor, New York, New York, and spanning four states, have extracted more than $165 million in fees from the insurance estates they administer \u2014 not one dollar of which was approved by the supervising court, as N.C. Gen. Stat. \u00a7 58-30-85(3) requires \u2014 while methodically destroying billions of dollars in value that Lindberg lawfully built over decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scheme\u2019s genesis predates Causey\u2019s inauguration,\u201d the complaint added. \u201cIn December 2016 \u2014 weeks before taking office as North Carolina Insurance Commissioner \u2014 Causey identified Lindberg, the largest financial supporter of his electoral opponent, as a \u2018political problem\u2019 and a \u2018significant impediment\u2019 to be eliminated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne witness has attested under oath, and a second has stated in a recorded interview, that Causey plotted to \u2018dismantle\u2019 Lindberg\u2019s insurance operations and that he \u2018had a person in mind\u2019 to do it: a long-serving North Carolina Department of Insurance (\u2018NCDOI\u2019) deputy who \u2018already didn\u2019t like Lindberg and would know how to go about dealing with [his] companies and dismantling them,\u2019\u201d Lindberg wrote. \u201cThat deputy was Senior Deputy Commissioner Jacqueline Obusek \u2014 the very regulator whose bias Lindberg later, and justifiably, asked to have removed from his file, and whom Causey later promoted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCausey then leveraged relationships with federal law enforcement to spur an FBI investigation on the strength of a fabricated $110,000 donation allegation that the FBI later admitted never occurred, demanded and received a wire, and over more than 100 recorded calls and meetings solicited contributions while asking, on tape, \u2018what\u2019s in it for me?\u2019 Lindberg\u2019s complaint continued. \u201cThe recordings captured Lindberg, unaware he was being recorded, insisting on \u2018legal campaign contributions,\u2019 on \u2018tighter standards than the law allows,\u2019 and on a regulator who would be \u2018tough and fair, that\u2019s all we need.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindberg credited the \u201centrapment\u201d with leading to his conviction in the federal bribery case.<\/p>\n

The complaint goes on to spell out accusations involving actions taken after Lindberg gave up control of North Carolina insurance companies in 2018. He accuses the defendants of selling his assets at a fraction of their value and harming the federal restitution process in the fraud case. In one case, Lindberg alleges that the defendants sold \u201cBeckett Collectibles\u201d valued at more than $1 billion for $134 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cLindberg has demonstrated to the Western District of North Carolina, and contends on appeal, that restitution has not merely been paid but overpaid by more than $2 billion,\u201d he wrote. \u201cAnd the sentencing court itself characterized \u2018the real loss\u2019 in the criminal case as \u2018risk\u2019 \u2014 a risk that was lawful when taken, approved by the regulator, and not prohibited by North Carolina statute until 2019, after Lindberg had ceded control.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[T]he Enterprise is paid from the estate it liquidates, so every sale it completes both enriches the Defendants and dissipates the only fund from which any judgment against them, or any restitution credit to Lindberg, could be satisfied,\u201d according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

\u201cLindberg does not ask this Court to fix the amount of his restitution, to review any order of the Western District of North Carolina, or to find his conviction invalid,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThose questions are before the district court and the Fourth Circuit. \u2026 He asks this Court to hold the Defendants accountable, under RICO and New York law, for what they did with his assets after they took control of them \u2014 the fees they paid themselves without court approval, the transactions they blocked, the sales they forced at a fraction of value, and the sale of Beckett for approximately $134 million against a $1,003,924,000 appraisal \u2014 and to stay the next such sale until the restitution question is finally adjudicated, including all appeals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not comment on pending litigation,\u201d said Barry Smith, deputy director of communications at the NC Department of Insurance, when asked for a response to Lindberg\u2019s allegations.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s unsuccessful 2016 re-election bid. Goodwin lost to Causey.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s race to the incumbent Democrat, Gov. Roy Cooper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former top North Carolina political donor Greg Lindberg has filed a federal lawsuit in New York against state…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14476,130744,48765,130745,9,11,10,49,51,50,50533],"class_list":["post-349868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-bribery","tag-greg-lindberg","tag-insurance-fraud","tag-mike-causey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-rico"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}