The Truth About Mike Causey's Abuse of Power And Political Vendetta Against Greg Lindberg

    ORLANDO, FL, September 28, 2023 /24-7PressRelease/ -- There is only one reason that policyholders have not been able to access their full policy benefits: because Mike Causey is playing politics, says Greg Lindberg. And because Mike Causey is playing politics, the NCDOI has refused to take action on the offers Mr. Lindberg has received to purchase his companies.

This entire scenario is politically driven. Mike Causey admitted to a staffer at NCDOI that he pursued Lindberg out of retaliation for Lindberg's support of his opponent in the 2016 election. And Causey mentioned Lindberg over 100 times in his various campaign events for the 2020 election.

Causey's agents took over 5 months to execute a simple NDA to supply information to a potential buyer and then refused to provide the detailed information that the buyer required to close the deal. Causey is blocking the sale because a sale is contrary to Causey's false claims about the companies. Regardless, Mr. Lindberg continues to fight every day to complete the sale of his insurance companies.

Lindberg states that there is a "ready and willing" buyer for his NC insurance companies who has offered to pay "several hundred million dollars" for these companies so that they can be sold and exit rehabilitation immediately. At the time of sale, policyholders will be able to access all their benefits, Lindberg says. "My insurance companies successfully exiting rehabilitation utilizing our recommendations will prove that the allegations about liquidity and questions about our financial strength have been false since day one," Lindberg says.

Given that a buyer has offered to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for Mr. Lindberg's NC insurance companies and a liquidation of them is totally absurd. The liquidation was filed by Causey's agents only to try to deny Lindberg the opportunity to sell these companies, Lindberg says.

Causey's agents have also attempted to block sales of Mr. Lindberg's assets that will facilitate the sale of the insurance companies. For example, Mr. Lindberg has spent 6 months attempting to sell one asset to a ready and willing buyer for over $400 million but so far Causey's agents have blocked that sale.

In fact, Causey's agents have initiated ALL of the litigation with Mr. Lindberg and his companies. Mr. Lindberg has tried mightily to settle these litigation matters but Causey's agents have refused to discuss any settlement.

Causey's agents have been litigating to enforce a 10 year rehabilitation plan. Mr. Lindberg's plan gets policyholders their full funds this year. The sole reason policyholders don't have access to their funds now is Causey's intentional delay of the rehab exit of Mr. Lindberg's NC insurers.

If Causey will simply approve the sale of the companies, then the policyholders will be able to access their funds in full. The companies have over $1 billion of cash and liquid assets and Mr. Lindberg has shown time and time again with third party valuations that the loans to his various companies are well secured.

Mr. Lindberg's non-insurance companies have revenue of $1.7 billion and EBITDA of over $300 million. Mr. Lindberg owns several businesses with zero insurance debt that have EBITDA of over $100 million a year. Mr. Lindberg invested over $500 million in his insurance companies and has never taken a penny of dividends from them. Mr. Lindberg even put $50 million in the NC insurance companies in December of 2018 AFTER all of these allegations were well known to him. He continues to fund his insurance companies today. He has always done the right thing for policyholders.

Mike Causey Framed Lindberg to Deflect Attention Away From Causey's Own Corrupt Acts

Mike Causey was sued by the owner of Cannon Surety, Dallas McClain, in October of 2017. The lawsuit stated that Causey enabled and instructed "the abuse of power, while continuing to engage in outright influence peddling and overt criminal political corruption through 'Pay to Play' politics." Dallas McClain subsequently filed an additional lawsuit this summer alleging that "Internal DOI documents reveal that [Mike Causey and Jackie Obusek] plotted to shut down Mr. McClain's company astonishingly in order to cut off his funds so he could not protect and/or defend himself and Cannon in a lawsuit he was then pursuing against a third-party surety competitor and others who were friends and supporters of [Causey and Obusek]." See: https://lapostexaminer.com/greg-lindberg-discloses-8-reasons-why-the-public-should-demand-that-the-fbi-the-n-c-state-bureau-of-investigation-and-the-n-c-attorney-general-investigate-mike-causey/2020/10/04#_ftn1

An affidavit in the McClain lawsuit stated that Causey admitted that he "shut down Cannon" at the request of certain of his political supporters. The lawsuit demonstrated that Causey put Dallas McClain's company out of business for purely political reasons. When his behavior was discovered, Causey went to the FBI with false allegations about Lindberg so his own actions would not be investigated. And the fact that Lindberg was the No. 1 supporter of Causey's political rival and had funded "attack" ads (albeit truthful) about Mike Causey made me an attractive target to him. You can read more at: https://lapostexaminer.com/does-a-successful-appeal-loom-for-greg-lindberg/2020/08/29

As Lindberg's attorney said during his trial: "Once [Causey] becomes aware that [Dallas McClain] is submitting this information to the FBI and they threaten him with a federal grand jury regarding his activities, it's our belief that Causey immediately initiated an investigation against Greg Lindberg and his companies with the ulterior motive of trying to deflect attention from himself and aligning himself with law enforcement." Read more at: https://www.wral.com/in-federal-suit-indicted-bail-bonds-owner-alleges-conspiracy-by-top-state-officials/19228657/.

This would explain why Causey targeted Lindberg with an aggressive 8-month entrapment scheme, replete with Causey's outright lies, demands for secret meetings, false pretenses, and other activities that an honest insurance regulator would never do.

The bottom line is that Causey positioned himself to be the government's star witness — making it far less likely the FBI would dirty up its own confidential informant, much less truly investigate him. That is exemplified by the FBI's cursory interviews of Causey's accusers — with no follow up whatsoever. Thus, the FBI was aware of the Cannon Surety issue and chose to look the other way — Causey's way. The public has a right to expect more of the FBI and should insist on an investigation, Lindberg says.

Mike Causey Spent 8 Months Aggressively Demanding Donations From Lindberg Solely To Try To Entrap Him

Mike Causey induced the FBI to start a bribery investigation of Lindberg before any alleged bribe occurred. How could that be? At trial, it came out that Mike Causey told the FBI about an alleged $110,000 "bribe." That key fact launched the FBI investigation. It came out two years later that the $110,000 bribe NEVER happened ("the Lie"). That little fact did not come out until trial, when Lindberg's attorneys proved it was completely false. That is not a contested fact. It was 100% false. Did the DOJ hit pause? Did they reassess their 2 year multi-million dollar investigation and high publicity indictment? Nope. The train had left the station and Greg Lindberg was getting prosecuted — no matter what. And an investigation started on a blatant lie had Lindberg (with no criminal record) facing 20 years in prison.

After these lies and at Causey's constant urging (i.e., 1,100 texts and calls), the FBI spent eight months, hundreds of hours, and made over 107 attempts to try to entrap Lindberg. In most instances, this type of aggressive entrapment by law enforcement is not permitted. All the while, Causey repeatedly demanded large donations from Lindberg, stating "hell, I'm the insurance commissioner," and asking, "what's in it for me?"

Mr. Causey had enormous power over Lindberg's insurance companies and still does today. What was Lindberg supposed to do when Causey aggressively and repeatedly demanded donations? Lindberg didn't have a choice but to concede to his demands for donations. Lindberg took assurance from Causey's agreement that "there was nothing wrong with" the donations he was demanding. As we later found out, he forced Lindberg's insurance companies into rehabilitation anyway based on lies he told the Wall Street Journal.

Did Mike Causey Lie To The FBI?

Lying to the FBI is a felony. Specifically, Causey told the FBI that one of Lindberg's largest assets was "worthless" — despite numerous audits, valuations, and an audited personal financial statement, all of which was provided to support the asset's value. Lindberg says that a buyer recently offered up to $2 billion including deferred consideration for this one asset that Causey said was worthless.

This absurd inflammatory theory by Causey was proven 100% false. But not before the FBI, the Wall Street Journal and others took Causey's lies — akin to yelling "fire" in a crowded theater — at face value.

Causey misled people about the performance of the Lindberg group of companies. Lindberg says that his group of businesses in aggregate delivered $305 million in adjusted EBITDA last year on $1.7 billion in revenue – a 16% increase in year over year results. For more information, see: https://www.24-7pressrelease.com/press-release/499379/despite-ongoing-legal-battles-greg-lindbergs-group-of-companies-achieve-record-revenues-of-17-billion

In fact, a recent final draft valuation report prepared by a well-recognized national valuation firm found that Lindberg's companies' assets were between $860 million and $1.46 billion in excess of liabilities on a fair market value basis as of December 31, 2019. These net worth numbers are net of all liabilities owed by Global Growth companies to affiliated insurers and to third-party lenders. This means that the loans from Lindberg's affiliated insurers to Global Growth companies are very well secured.

Note that the above asset values are also net of the more than $400 million in damages that false statements have inflicted on the Global Growth businesses. Read more at: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-growth-achieves-record-operating-results-for-the-first-half-of-2020-founder-greg-lindberg-reports-301099792.html

Mike Causey Lied Under Oath At Lindberg's Trial, Lindberg Says

Mike Causey, in response to basic questions on the stand during the trial, said "I do not recall" over 100 times and perjured himself during trial. Meanwhile, Causey miraculously had a perfect memory for the prosecution's questions. Like lying to the FBI, committing perjury at trial is a federal felony. However, Causey has not been prosecuted and various law enforcement agencies have not responded to requests for an investigation into Causey's testimony.

"I believe Causey lied (again) under oath at my trial, denying the fact that he was the one who demanded the secret meetings with me. The FBI agents who watched his testimony knew he was not telling the truth. But not a peep out of them about Causey perjuring himself during my recent trial. The prosecution knew better, too," says Lindberg.

Causey also did not tell the jury and the Court about the fact that he was the one who demanded a personal check from me — which I refused to give him. Again, if I was trying to bribe the guy, why would I refuse to give him a personal check? Causey claimed that he was "not aware" of me during the 2016 election — despite the fact that Lindberg's large donations to Causey's opponent were mentioned in the very same articles where Causey himself was quoted.

Causey's cell phone revealed that he was literally researching me at all hours of the day and night for almost a year. He also had over 1,100 communications with the FBI about me. When was this guy ever doing his actual job? Causey also lied to the court about his retaliatory motives even when confronted with a text that he sent to the FBI gleefully reporting that "things are closing in on Greg Lindberg." Does that sound like an unbiased witness or someone with an agenda?

Causey was also asked (under oath) why he rejected Lindberg's initial $5,000 donation (and no one else's) to his campaign when he very first took office. Causey claimed (under oath) he was concerned and rejected all the donations from owners of companies he regulated. False. His campaign donation records show otherwise. At the same time that he was supposedly concerned about alleged donations from Lindberg, Causey received large donations from the owners of other insurers as well as large donations from the political action committees for numerous other North Carolina insurers. In fact, Causey had previously testified in a deposition in October of 2017 that he did not find it inappropriate to receive large donations from companies he regulated – the opposite of what he said under oath in the trial. Read more at: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2020/08/28/580665.htm

Did Mike Causey tell the truth on his state ethics forms?

"I believe Causey did not tell the truth on his state ethics forms about his growing amount of debt. Lying on state ethics forms is a felony. Was he prosecuted? Nope," says Lindberg. North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein failed to respond to a letter sent to him almost six months ago dated March 27, 2020 detailing those lies. The public should insist that these false statements by a public official be investigated and prosecuted. Read more at: https://www.ustimesnow.com/greg-lindberg-says-the-recent-ruling-in-his-case-infringes-on-every-americans-constitutional-rights/

Mike Causey plays politics at the expense of policyholders.

"I personally guaranteed all debts of my insurance companies. With my economic losses exceeding $400 million from Causey's abuse of power, the policyholders of my insurance companies lost over $400 million in backstop support," Lindberg says. Read more at: https://nsjonline.com/article/2020/08/08-25-2020-an-open-letter-from-greg-lindberg/

The best evidence of Causey's mindset in targeting me with Lindberg entrapment scheme comes from his own words. On the last day of the FBI investigation, Causey sent a celebratory text to the FBI entitled: "How to make [people] your bitches." It was a step-by-step article on how to set people up. This from our elected Insurance Commissioner! The FBI's agent response? "Thanks…and…good!" The lead FBI agent even admitted in court that he never investigated the motives of Causey, including why Causey was pushing so hard for the FBI to investigate me. The agent said he never checked public records showing that I was the largest supporter of Causey's opponent in the bitterly contested 2016 election.

Today Mike Causey is using the case against Lindberg – the case that he initiated with lies to the FBI — as the central theme for his re-election campaign. This was clearly his plan all along in making false statements to the FBI to initiate the case. This is an egregious abuse of the Department of Justice for political gain.

Perhaps the FBI could have at least hit pause when evidence surfaced that Causey had used his power to take over an insurer (one not owned by Lindberg or Global Growth) for political reasons. There was direct evidence that Causey did that at the request of his political supporters. Read more at: https://nsjonline.com/article/2020/08/08-25-2020-an-open-letter-from-greg-lindberg/

Mike Causey plays politics at the expense of the policyholders he was elected to serve.

"Causey abused the power of the federal government to investigate and prosecute the largest supporter of his political opponent. And it sets a terrible precedent. I'm sure unscrupulous politicians of all stripes are watching Causey's moves carefully to see if they too can convince the FBI to investigate some of their most troublesome opponents," says Lindberg. Read more at: https://lapostexaminer.com/does-a-successful-appeal-loom-for-greg-lindberg/2020/08/29

About Greg Lindberg
Greg Lindberg is a successful entrepreneur, philanthropist and author. To learn more visit http://www.greglindberg.com. Over the course of his career, he has acquired and transformed more than 100 companies that were either failing or underperforming, each time finding and empowering great talent—people with the same commitment to hard work, learning, entrepreneurship, and a roll-up-your-sleeves attitude. Today, these companies are worth billions of dollars and employ 7,000 people. His experiences as a leader and related challenges have inspired him to empower people to achieve optimal success through wellness, longevity and leadership. Lindberg also has authored two books: Failing Early & Failing Often: How to Turn Your Adversity into Advantage and 633 Days Inside: Lessons on Life and Leadership, both of which are available on Amazon. In 2020, he founded Interrogating Justice, a non-profit organization whose mission is to bring awareness and help advance solutions that hold corrupt government actors accountable, ensure fairness in sentencing, support reentry, and provide access to justice for all. To learn more visit: https://interrogatingjustice.org

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