NC insurance commissioner asked billionaire to bribe him, defense lawyers argue
Was North Carolina’s insurance commissioner inviting a billionaire insurance magnate to bribe him?
Defense lawyers for indicted insurance company owner Greg Lindberg contend the answer is yes, and they attempted to sell that argument to a jury with an aggressive line of questioning Tuesday.
Lindberg and associates John Gray and John Palermo, along with then-GOP Chairman Robin Hayes, were indicted last spring on charges that they attempted to funnel $2 million in bribe money to the reelection campaign of state Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey. Their goal, prosecutors contend, was to persuade Causey to remove an insurance department regulator who was responsible for overseeing one of his companies.
In early 2018, Causey began cooperating with federal investigators, wearing a clandestine device to record many hours of conversations with Lindberg and his associates. During the trial’s first four days, those recordings have taken center stage.
Paul Johnson, a cowboy-boot-wearing lawyer from Dallas, Texas who is representing the indicted billionaire, noted that Causey repeatedly sought private conversations with Lindberg.
“The conversation you wanted to have with him is you wanted to ask him for a bribe, did you not?” Johnson asked Causey Tuesday.
“No, sir,” Causey replied.
Johnson’s line of questioning is pivotal to the defense’s argument: that Causey entrapped Lindberg and his associates.
Defense lawyers have argued that Causey pushed for an investigation into Lindberg because he was troubled by the financial support that Lindberg had provided to his chief political opponent — former insurance commissioner Wayne Goodwin, who he narrowly defeated in the 2016 election. Lindberg donated at least $9,500 to Goodwin during the 2016 race, according to state records.
Lindberg in recent years became one of North Carolina’s largest political donors. He owns Global Bankers Insurance Group, a managing company for several insurance and reinsurance companies.
He and his associates appear to have spared little expense in their defense. They’ve hired more than a half dozen lawyers and, according to the judge in the Lindberg case, even employed a “ghost jury.” Ghost jurors, also known as “shadow jurors,” are typically paid to observe a trial and report their reactions to lawyers in a case.
‘What’s in it for me?’
The defense team has repeatedly focused on a comment that Causey made to Lindberg during a March 2018 meeting at the Statesville airport. During that meeting, the two discussed how the insurance department could hire Palermo — who at the time was working for Lindberg — to take over the job of overseeing Lindberg’s company.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is what’s in it for me?” Causey asked Lindberg during that meeting.
Asked to explain why he made that comment, Causey testified that he did it “at the direction of the FBI agents.”
Later, Causey elaborated: “I did not ask for $2 million or $3 million or 50 cents. I asked, ‘What’s in it for me?’ And the response came from Greg Lindberg.”
During the meeting at the Statesville airport, Lindberg offered to create an independent expenditure committee for Causey’s reelection campaign and to fund it with “million or two or whatever.”
U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn Jr., who is presiding over the trial at the federal courthouse in Charlotte, chided Johnson for repeatedly covering the same ground in his questions for Causey — and for using his time with the witness to make arguments rather than ask questions.
“You’re speechifying here,” the judge told Johnson. “...You’ll get a chance to argue later.”
Johnson also argued that if Causey had moved the regulator overseeing Lindberg’s company, the change would not be an “official act” — and, therefore, would not constitute bribery.
Lindberg’s defense lawyers have pointed to a case in which the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the trial court’s conviction of former Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell, who had been accused of bribery. The high court made its ruling on the grounds that McDonnell’s actions were not “official acts.”
The judge didn’t buy that argument.
“When someone does an act in their official capacity and it affects the people of North Carolina ... I think that’s an official act,” Cogburn said.
This story was originally published February 25, 2020 at 3:54 PM with the headline "NC insurance commissioner asked billionaire to bribe him, defense lawyers argue."