Special master: Up to $300M on the way for Greg Lindberg victims

The special master assigned to unwind disgraced financier Greg Lindberg's maze of companies says the impending sale of one of them will yield up to $300 million for fraud victims.

The law firm Grier Wright Martinez filed a status report Wednesday with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. It outlines negotiations for the purchase of Clanwilliam companies that predate the March 2025 assignment of the special master.

The unnamed buyer has "completed due diligence under the purchase contract," a sale that is "anticipated to generated more than $300,000,000 for Defendant’s victims," wrote Michael L. Martinez in the status report.

According to reports in the Irish press, Eli Global, Lindberg’s private equity firm, invested in Helix Health in 2014. This investment led to the creation of Clanwilliam Group. Lindberg served as a director of Triton Financial, which in turn was the sole shareholder of Clanwilliam Headquarters, the entity that owned the Clanwilliam Group name.

In November 2020, a UK-based trust, Clanwilliam Group Trust, was established to take control of Clanwilliam companies. TA Associates Management acquired Clanwilliam via a "$450 million LBO on March 13, 2025," according to Pitchbook Data.

Clanwilliam "is a developer of healthcare software intended to serve pharmacists, acute hospitals, care homes, and private clinicians of every specialty and national healthcare organization," Pitchbook reported.

All closing conditions on the Clanwilliam sale are resolved, other than "certain consents needed
from the Special Master, Defendant, and the Bermuda Insurance Companies," Martinez wrote.

Given "the desire not to lose the opportunity to generate substantial sums for victims soon," Grier Wright Martinez has focused on closing the sale of Clanwilliam, above the general liquidation of Lindberg's assets in total, Martinez wrote.

Bribery and fraud

In October 2020, Lindberg reported to prison for attempting to bribe North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey. That conviction was overturned in June 2022, but Lindberg was convicted a second time in May 2024.

In November, Lindberg pleaded guilty to engineering a $2 billion fraud. His guilty plea on a money laundering conspiracy charge carries a maximum 10-year sentence, the Department of Justice said. Lindberg also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, including wire fraud, investment adviser fraud, and crimes in connection with insurance business.

Sentencing is being delayed while Lindberg works with a special master to recover funds for his victims. A presentencing report filed last month is under seal, and a court docket update states: "Schedule for Sentence on or after 6/26/2025."

Lindberg's November plea satisfied a 48-page indictment handed down by a federal grand jury in February 2023. It accused Lindberg and two co-conspirators of illegally siphoning vast amounts of money from Lindberg's insurance companies for his personal use, then lying to regulators to hide their $2 billion scheme.

“The indictment reveals a carefully orchestrated scheme that relied on a web of complex financial investments and transactions designed to evade regulators, disguise the financial health of Lindberg’s insurance companies, and conceal the alleged purpose of the scheme: Lindberg’s personal gain,” said U.S. Attorney Dena J. King at the time of the indictment.

Tensions reported

On June 27, 2019, Southland National Insurance Corp., Colorado Bankers Life Insurance Co., Bankers Life Insurance Co., and Southland National Reinsurance Corp. – all owned by Lindberg – were placed in rehabilitation by order of the Superior Court of Wake County, North Carolina.

Many policyholders, mainly with Bankers Life, have waited years to access their funds. The special master's status report shares some of the difficulties the legal team is running into in trying to recover Lindberg's assets.

For example, one of the lenders for "one of the most valuable Primary Restitution Assets refused to ... consent to Defendant’s assignment to the Special Master, at least not unless someone paid this lender a consent fee of at least $2,000,000," Martinez wrote.

That snag was eventually worked out and the special master received improved cooperation of late, Martinez said. But even victims contributed to delays.

"The Special Master did not immediately receive full cooperation from all victims," Martinez wrote. "However, ... the Special Master witnessed a marked improvement in the flow of victim information to the Special Master approaching the close of the Reporting Period."

Likewise, 11 separate lawsuits, including three filed after the appointment of the special master, continue to make the recovery work difficult, Martinez said.

"Across these litigation matters, orders imposing various injunctive and equitable relief have been entered, some of which, on their face, undermine—or at least cause tension with—the powers and duties conferred to the Special Master," the status report said.

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InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.