NC billionaire with previously scrapped bribery conviction gets new trial in March [The Charlotte Observer]

Durham billionaire Greg Lindberg, whose 2020 conviction for attempting to bribe a North Carolina official was overturned in June due to improper jury instructions by his judge, will return to the Charlotte federal courthouse in March for his new trial.

The tentative March 6, 2023, trial date was publicly announced Monday after a hearing before U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn in Charlotte’s federal courthouse, the site of Lindberg’s conviction 30 months ago.

On June 29, Lindberg had served almost two years of a seven-year sentence when the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals threw out his conviction on attempting to bribe state Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey.

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In a statement to The Charlotte Observer on Monday, a Lindberg spokesperson said the defendant welcomes a new chance to prove his innocence.

“Mr. Lindberg looks forward to the opportunity to clear his name in the court of law as well as the court of public opinion,” the statement said.

“The fact remains that the case against Mr. Lindberg is purely political. We hope that by the end of the trial, it will be apparent that Mr. Lindberg is a law-abiding, character-driven person who has led a life in which doing good takes an equal role to doing well.”

Lindberg received a new chance to defend himself based on Cogburn’s instructions to the jury on an essential element of government corruption cases — whether it involved an “official act.”

According to prosecutors, Lindberg and business associate John Gray gave Causey’s political campaign $250,000 and promised millions of dollars more if Causey replaced a state regulator overseeing Lindberg’s businesses.

Unknown to Lindberg, Causey began wearing an FBI wire. Causey was the star witness at the businessman’s trial.

At the close of the proceedings, Cogburn told the jury that the purported bribery involved an official act. According to the appeals court opinion, that determination has to be made by the jury, not the judge.

Lindberg and Gray were convicted after an eight-day trial in March 2020. Under the appeals court ruling, Gray, sentenced to 30 months for two bribery convicitons, also will receive a new trial.

Lindberg’s arrest and conviction sent shockwaves across North Carolina’s political landscape. He was for a time the state’s largest political donor.

According to prosecutors, Lindberg funneled some of his intended bribes to Causey through the state Republican Party and its former executive director, former Congressman Robin Hayes of Concord.

In a deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte that kept him out of prison, Hayes pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of lying to the FBI. He was later pardoned by former President Donald Trump.

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