A hidden camera reportedly caught a North Carolina billionaire bribing a state official with millions of dollars in campaign funding to convince him to replace a regulator overseeing the mogul’s insurance companies. Greg Lindberg was convicted March 5 of using campaign funding to bribe North Carolina’s insurance commissioner, Mike Causey, who was taping their interactions as part of a federal sting, according to The Charlotte Observer. Lindberg and his cohorts asked Causey several times during a March 2018 meeting to replace regulator Jackie Obusek because Lindberg believed Obusek had smeared his business' reputation, the newspaper reported.
Causey can be heard asking, “What’s in it for me” in the video, obtained by The Charlotte Observer. Lindberg responds, "But I think the play here is to create an independent expenditure committee for your re-election specifically, with, you know, a goal of raising $2 million or something.” Lindberg explains that "the beauty of" an independent expenditure is "corporate donations are allowed and they're unlimited," so Causey won’t have to be involved. "It's none of your business, but we're going to set it up," Lindberg says, "and I can put in a million or two, or whatever. I could be the sole donor.”
Lindberg goes on to ask whether Causey has any ideas about people he would trust to run it. “Like your brother,” he says with a chuckle. The conversation wasn’t the final interaction with Lindberg that Causey caught on camera. In other footage, recorded on May 29, 2018, at Lindberg’s house, Lindberg and his associate John Gray can be heard laying out a new agreement to replace Obusek with regulator Debbie Walker and feed $2 million to Causey’s campaign through the North Carolina Republican Party. And in another meeting between Gray, Lindberg, and Causey, held on July 25, 2018, Gray tells Causey to expect “10,000 plus 250,000, quickly, if we have your assurance and a date certain by which the Debbie Walker staff realignment can occur,” The Charlotte Observer reported.
Another phone call also involved Robin Hayes, former chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, who pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents after earlier telling Lindberg, Causey, and Gray that he would "get 'er done" when asked to transfer $250,000 to Causey's campaign. Gray was also convicted of political bribery, and Hayes could be sentenced to up to six months in prison.