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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina enterprise magnate has been indicted once more on federal felony costs, this time on accusations that he conspired to skim giant quantities of cash from his insurance coverage firms, then lied about it to regulators to cover the scheme with two co-conspirators.

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A 13-count grand jury indictment in Charlotte was filed Thursday in opposition to Greg E. Lindberg of Durham, whom federal prosecutors allege has defrauded 1000’s of policyholders, information shops reported.

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“The indictment reveals a fastidiously orchestrated scheme that relied on an online of advanced monetary investments and transactions designed to evade regulators, disguise the monetary well being of Lindberg’s insurance coverage firms, and conceal the alleged objective of the scheme: Lindberg’s private achieve,” western North Carolina U.S. Legal professional Dena King stated after the indictment was made public Friday.

The counts embrace wire fraud, conspiracy, money-laundering conspiracy, making false insurance coverage enterprise statements to regulators and making false entries about insurance coverage enterprise funds.

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Lindberg, 53, already is going through within the fall a retrial on federal costs accusing him of trying to bribe North Carolina’s insurance coverage commissioner to safe preferential regulatory remedy for his insurance coverage enterprise. Earlier than the 2019 indictment on these costs, Lindberg had given thousands and thousands of {dollars} to North Carolina candidate and occasion committees and unbiased expenditure teams.

An appeals courtroom final June overturned these 2020 corruption-related convictions, and shortly after he was launched from an Alabama jail the place he had been serving a seven-year sentence. With the newest indictment, an arrest warrant was issued Thursday for Lindberg.

A Lindberg spokesperson known as the newest costs “piling on” by the federal government as a result of it has a weak case in opposition to Lindberg at retrial. An appeals courtroom panel dominated the trial decide erred by giving jurors in Lindberg’s trial deceptive directions earlier than they started deliberations.

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Based on prosecutors and the newest indictment, Lindberg and others agreed from no later than 2016 by at the very least 2019 to defraud insurance coverage firms, different third events and policyholders. In 2017-18 Lindberg and his co-conspirators used loans and associated transactions to skim “tons of of thousands and thousands of {dollars}” from his insurance coverage firms to purchase and function different Lindberg companies, the indictment alleges.

Lindberg deceived the state Insurance coverage Division and different regulators and improperly used insurance coverage firm funds for his private profit, the federal government alleges. Lindberg allegedly personally benefited by utilizing firm funds to finance “his lavish way of life” by actual property purchases and forgiving over $125 million in loans from his affiliated firms to himself, in response to a U.S. Justice Division launch.

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Lindberg spokesperson Susan Estrich stated the “the newest costs stem from the federal government’s spending over 5 years going by over 7 million paperwork on actually 1000’s of difficult monetary transactions involving over 900 firms and handpicking alleged technical violations which haven’t brought on any loss to policyholders in North Carolina or some other state for that matter.”

Estrich additionally offered a press release from Lindberg, who stated: “I invested over $500 million in my insurance coverage firms. I by no means took a penny of dividends. The allegation that I in some way defrauded them whereas investing $500 million in them and taking no dividends is completely absurd.”

Final August, the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee filed a civil criticism in opposition to Lindberg, an affiliate and their funding advisory agency of defrauding shoppers out of over $75 million by advanced schemes involving undisclosed transactions.

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And in December, that affiliate — recognized as Christopher Herwig — pleaded responsible in Charlotte federal courts to conspiracy to defraud america associated to a scheme to maneuver cash between insurance coverage firms and different companies Lindberg owned.

Herwig is recognized as one of many two co-conspirators on this week’s indictment of Lindberg. The opposite alleged co-conspirator — recognized as Devin Solow — had been formally accused by federal prosecutors of conspiracy in a invoice of data unsealed final month. However Solow’s lawyer and King’s workplace additionally wrote that the federal government and Solow had entered a deferred prosecution settlement whereby the invoice can be dismissed in 5 years if Solow complies with the settlement, which incorporates promising to cooperate with prosecutors.