New trial for North Carolina insurance magnate set for March

A brand new trial for a North Carolina-based insurance coverage magnate whose earlier convictions on corruption-related prices have been overturned is ready for early March, a federal decide selected Monday.

Attorneys for Greg E. Lindberg and the U.S. authorities met with U.S. District Decide Max Cogburn, who set a schedule for proceedings resulting in a tentative trial date, in response to an outline of the listening to posted on the federal courts’ web page.

Cogburn launched Lindberg from a minimum-security jail in Alabama final month, weeks after the 4th U.S. Circuit Courtroom of Appeals vacated Lindberg’s convictions from March 2020 and ordered a brand new trial.

Lindberg had been sentenced to greater than seven years after being convicted of trying to bribe North Carolina’s insurance coverage commissioner to safe preferential regulatory remedy for his insurance coverage enterprise. The 4th Circuit panel declared Cogburn had erred by giving jurors in Lindberg’s trial deceptive directions earlier than they started deliberations.

Lindberg, who had grow to be a big political donor in North Carolina politics earlier than his 2019 indictment, “seems to be ahead to the chance to clear his title within the courtroom of legislation in addition to the courtroom of public opinion,” Lindberg spokesperson Susan Estrich stated in an emailed assertion. “The very fact stays that the case towards Mr. Lindberg is only political.”

The U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace in Charlotte, which helped prosecute Lindberg, declined remark late Monday.

The scheduling order and tentative March 6 trial date additionally applies to John D. Grey, a Lindberg guide convicted of the identical two counts as Lindberg. Grey additionally had his convictions vacated for a similar causes.