CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — An insurance mogul who was once a big political donor in North Carolina is in federal custody after pleading guilty in what prosecutors call a $2 billion scheme aimed at defrauding insurance regulators, policyholders and others through a myriad of companies. from which he drew funds for his personal benefit.

Greg E. Lindberg, 54, of Tampa, Fla., entered pleas 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 the court. documents.

Lindberg, who had been indicted on 13 counts in February 2023, he faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for the money laundering conspiracy and five years for the other conspiracy count, a U.S. Department of Justice press release states.

Lindberg, who previously lived in Durham, North Carolina, was already awaiting sentencing after him and an associate. were sentenced in May by a federal jury for attempting to bribe North Carolina’s elected insurance commissioner to obtain preferential regulatory treatment for his insurance business. The two men were initially convicted on two counts in 2020, but a federal appeals court overturned these convictions and ordered new tests.

A document signed by Lindberg and government lawyers serving as the factual basis for Tuesday’s plea indicates that between at least 2016 and at least 2019, Lindberg and others conspired to engage in crimes related to the insurance industry, electronic fraud and investment advisor fraud. He and others also worked to deceive the State Department of Insurance and other regulators by avoiding regulatory requirements, concealing the circumstances of his companies and using insurance company funds for himself, according to a press release.

All of this led the companies Lindberg controlled to invest more than $2 billion in loans and other securities with his own affiliates, and Lindberg and his co-conspirators laundered the profits from the scheme, according to the government. The 2023 indictment alleged that Lindberg personally benefited from “forgiving” more than $125 million in loans from insurance companies he controlled, according to the press release.

“Lindberg created a complex network of insurance companies, investment firms and other business entities and exploited them to engage in circular transactions worth millions of dollars. Lindberg’s actions harmed thousands of policyholders, misled regulators, and caused enormous risk to the insurance industry,” said United States Attorney Dena J. King of the Western District of North Carolina. The FBI and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission also participated in the investigation.

There was no immediate response to emails sent Wednesday regarding Tuesday’s plea to a lawyer for Lindberg and a website associated with Lindberg’s wellness and leadership activities.

A sentencing date has not yet been set. Lindberg, who surrendered to U.S. marshals on Tuesday, requested that he be held at a halfway house in Tampa before his sentencing. Kessler has scheduled another hearing on the matter next week. After his first corruption conviction in 2020, a judge sentenced Lindberg to more than seven years in prison.

Lindberg had already donated more than $5 million to state and federal candidates and committees since 2016, favoring Republicans but also Democrats.

The U.S. Justice Department said one of Lindberg’s top executives was still awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty in late 2022 in a related case of conspiring with Lindberg and others to defraud the United States in connection with of a scheme to move money between insurance companies and other businesses owned by Lindberg.

Some of Lindberg’s insurance companies were placed in liquidation and subjected to a procedure aimed at restoring their financial health, the Justice Ministry said.

North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey said in a news release Wednesday that he and his state agency will continue to work with federal prosecutors to ensure that “any money recovered through the restitution process and confiscation will be used to reimburse the insured victims.

Jurors determined that Lindberg and a former consultant tried to bribe Causey in the late 2010s. Causey was not accused of wrongdoing — he alerted authorities and recorded conversations that served as the basis for the acts 2019 indictment against Lindberg and three others.

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