Judge chastises NC billionaire Greg Lindberg in heated hearing over restitution
A federal judge warned Durham billionaire Greg Lindberg during a heated Monday morning hearing that he was “overestimating his intelligence” by continuing to shuffle through lawyers and fight about how much restitution he must pay for bribing a North Carolina official and orchestrating a $2 billion scheme to defraud insurance companies.
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Lindberg, founder and CEO of the private equity firm Eli Global LLC (now known as Global Growth), was sentenced in May to 12 years in prison. That was a “lighter sentence” brought on in part by Lindberg’s proactive payments to his victims, U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn said Monday.
Now Lindberg is arguing he owes nothing more.
Lindberg, 55, has been cycling through the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina since 2019. A jury found him guilty of bribing an N.C. insurance commissioner, and when an appellate court ordered a retrial, a second jury found him guilty again. Lindberg then pleaded guilty in 2024 to conspiracy and money laundering charges.
Court documents say Lindberg “siphoned more than $2 billion” from his insurance companies and used more than $60 million of money on yachts, jets and women.
During his sentencing, Lindberg’s attorneys said Lindberg had already paid victims $1 billion before being ordered to do so by the court. That was the largest restitution ever paid in the state and one of the largest in the countries, his attorneys said.
At sentencing, Cogburn considered the proactive payments in giving Lindberg a “lighter sentence” than he otherwise would have. He did not rule on how much restitution Lindberg owed and left that issue open until the end of August.
A special master in charge of determining restitution recently said Lindberg still owes more than $1.6 billion. Lindberg disagrees. He says he owes no restitution and has pulled in a new attorney to argue that the special master should be disqualified and is acting unconstitutionally.
On Monday, Cogburn was skeptical of that move.
“The defendant, and possibly strategically, wanted to show he was going to pay restitution for a lighter sentence,” Cogburn said, and now that Lindberg’s been sentenced, “he wants that money back.”
Lindberg returned to the uptown Charlotte federal court Monday morning after federal prosecutors told the judge they had no idea who Lindberg’s attorneys were. His original attorneys had withdrawn from the case, and other attorneys had started filing several motions without any signed paper designating them as Lindberg’s new counsel.
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Russ Ferguson’s U.S. Attorney’s Office refused to reply to the motions until prosecutors knew who exactly was representing Lindberg. That issue was resolved Monday when Lindberg — in handcuffs, blue prison pants and a white T-shirt — told Cogburn that the attorney standing next to him would now represent him.
In the minutes before the hearing began, Cogburn said that attorney, Vivek Ramachandran, and another new attorney, Kenneth Barnes, had filed 10 motions in Lindberg’s docket.
“What’s the deal? We’re not playing games,” Cogburn said. “This court has given a fair sentence. This sounds like a delay!”
Cogburn warned Ramachandran about filing frivolous motions, but he agreed to hear arguments about the unconstitutionality of the special master in charge of delving out how much Lindberg owes. The judge also cautioned: “We’re not dummies here. We know fraud when we see it.”
Even with Lindberg’s proactive payments, the special master recommended restitution owed be dropped from $1.625 billion to $1.616 billion. Lindberg says the special master ignored hundreds of millions of dollars in payments and maintains he should now owe no restitution.
He also says that the special master sold a billion-dollar company for 13 cents on the dollar, but the special master has disputed that.
Ramachandran, recruited after sentencing, is also arguing the special master is unconstitutional and taking on too many responsibilities meant for the judge. In a response, the special master maintained that he has worked within the court’s guidelines. At the end of the day, the special master said, only a judge can decide what is owed, and that could be more or less than what the special master recommends.
“It’s been a long case,” said Cogburn, who has presided over the case since 2019 and is expected to rule on the restitution by Aug. 24. “And apparently, it’s going to be longer.”
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