Greg Lindberg, 56, of Tampa, Florida, and the founder and chairman of Eli Global LLC and owner of Global Bankers Insurance Group, has been sentenced to a combined 12 years in prison for his role in a bribery conspiracy and multibillion-dollar fraud conspiracy that bankrupted multiple insurance companies with thousands of unpaid policyholder victims.

According to court documents and evidence presented in court, from at least 2016 through at least 2019, Mr Lindberg conspired with others to defraud various insurance companies, other third parties and hundreds of thousands of insurance policyholders.

Mr Lindberg and others conspired to deceive the North Carolina Department of Insurance and other regulators, evaded regulatory requirements meant to protect policyholders, concealed the true financial condition of his companies, and improperly used insurance company funds for his personal benefit.

Mr Lindberg and his co-conspirators caused companies he controlled in North Carolina, Bermuda, Malta, and elsewhere to invest more than $2 billion in loans and other securities with his own affiliated companies and laundered the proceeds of the scheme.

Mr Lindberg directed the scheme and personally benefitted from the fraud in part by “forgiving” more than $125 million in loans to himself from the insurance companies that he controlled. Lindberg used his ill-got gains to fund a lavish lifestyle, buying private jets, mansions and a 200-foot luxury yacht.

To carry out these conspiracies, Lindberg and others engaged in circular transactions among Mr Lindberg’s web of entities using insurance company funds and misled or omitted material information from regulators, various ratings agencies, insurance companies and ultimately policyholders, regarding these transactions.

As Mr Lindberg’s fraud and money laundering conspiracies began to unravel, from April 2017 to August 2018, he and others engaged in a bribery scheme to cause the commissioner of insurance of the NCDOI to take official action favourable to Lindberg’s company, GBIG.

Mr Lindberg and others gave the commissioner millions of dollars in campaign contributions and other things of value in exchange for the removal of NCDOI’s senior deputy commissioner, who was responsible for overseeing the regulation and the periodic examination of GBIG.

As a result of Mr Lindberg’s conduct, his insurance companies, third-party entities and policyholders suffered substantial financial hardship, and multiple of his insurance companies have been placed in rehabilitation and liquidation.

To date, thousands of individual policyholders and other victims are collectively still owed more than $1 billion. A special master was appointed by the court in the fraud case to assist with the restitution process and distribution of funds to victims. A separate restitution hearing will be set at a later date.

In November 2024, Mr Lindberg pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit offences against the U.S. and conspiracy to commit money laundering. In May 2024, he was convicted by a federal jury of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds.