About the GOP, especially in the Tar Hole state!!!

The courts in N.C. are overwhelmingly Democratic. The state Supreme Court has only one Repub. The governor and the AG are also Dems.

But this is a Federal case run out of DC and the western district of NC. I think there is a very good chance of convictions. The GOP Commisioner of Insurance wore a wire.

Still, Robin Hayes is a big fish.

Last edited Wed Apr 3, 2019, 10:33 AM - Edit history (1)

Glad these men will pay for their crimes.

It is amazing, not a week goes by without reading about a new crook, or sexual misconduct, or...well, etc. etc. from the republican party...what low life people...

Democrats have been caught in scandal as well, but nowhere near as often as the Party Of Grease.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdnc/pr/founder-and-chairman-multinational-investment-company-company-consultant-and-two-north

(snip)
The indictment charges Greg E. Lindberg, 48, of Durham, North Carolina, and founder and Chairman of Eli Global LLC (Eli Global) and the owner of Global Bankers Insurance Group (GBIG); John D. Gray, 68, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina and a consultant for Lindberg; North Carolina state political party Chairman Robert Cannon Hayes, 73, of Concord, North Carolina; and Chairman of a Chatham County political party and an Eli Global executive John V. Palermo, 63, of Pittsboro, North Carolina, with conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, and bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds and aiding and abetting. Hayes is also charged with three counts of making false statements to the FBI.
(snip)

The criminal indictment alleges that in January 2018, the elected Commissioner of Insurance (Commissioner) of the North Carolina Department of Insurance (NCDOI) reported concerns to federal law enforcement about political contributions and other requests made by Lindberg and Gray, and agreed to cooperate with the federal investigation that was initiated.

According to allegations in the indictment, from April 2017 to August 2018, Lindberg, Gray, Palermo and Hayes devised a scheme to defraud and deprive the citizens of North Carolina of the honest services of the Commissioner, an elected State official, through bribery. As alleged in the indictment, the defendants engaged in a bribery scheme involving independent expenditure accounts and improper campaign contributions, for the purpose of causing the Commissioner to take official action favorable to Lindberg’s company, GBIG. As the indictment alleges, the defendants gave, offered, and promised the Commissioner millions of dollars in campaign contributions and other things of value, in exchange for the removal of NCDOI’s Senior Deputy Commissioner, who was responsible for overseeing regulation and the periodic examination of GBIG.

During the time frame relevant to the indictment, Lindberg, Gray, Palermo and the Commissioner held numerous in-person meetings at different locations, including in Statesville, North Carolina, and had telephonic and other communications with each other, and with Hayes, to discuss Lindberg’s request for the personnel change in exchange for millions of dollars, and to devise a plan on how to funnel campaign contributions to the Commissioner anonymously. In order to conceal the bribery scheme, Palermo allegedly set up, at the direction of Lindberg, two corporate entities to form an independent expenditure committee with the purpose of supporting the Commissioner’s re-election campaign, and funded the entities with $1.5 million as promised to the Commissioner. Also, at Lindberg and Gray’s direction, Hayes allegedly caused the transfer of $250,000 from monies Lindberg had previously contributed to a North Carolina state party of which Hayes was Chairman, to the Commissioner’s re-election campaign.
(snip)

NC consumers have enjoyed some of the lowest insurance rates in the nation for decades under Democratic commissioners who have done a good job regulating the industry, yet voters elected the first Repub commissioner in history in 2016 to take over. Big mistake.

Kind of a pleasant surprise though that the new Repub commissioner at least had enough smarts or integrity to resist the most powerful Repubs in NC politics and insurance industry who were determined to corrupt him for private profit by getting him to fire the deputy commissioner who was overseeing their insurance group.