The list of donation recipients reads like a who’s-who of Florida politics, but most contacted by POLITICO either did not respond to requests seeking comment or said they did not know who Lindberg was even as he was helping fund their campaigns. | Flickr Amid amped up scrutiny, North Carolina investor targeted by feds became top Florida GOP donor

A North Carolina investor targeted in a federal investigation of “drug offenses, crimes against financial institutions, or money laundering crimes” has emerged as one of Florida’s largest individual Republican political donors this election cycle, giving to a range of officials and sending $350,000 to committees supporting Senate candidate Gov. Rick Scott.

Businessman Greg Lindberg, whose companies are at the center of the federal probe, gave campaign cash to dozens of Florida politicians and political committees over an eight-month span. Recipients include powerful legislative leaders in line to control the Florida House and Senate for years to come.


Lindberg’s sudden interest in Florida politics coincides with increased scrutiny from Florida insurance regulators after years of wrangling with Lindberg companies, some of which are tied to the federal probe. Federal investigators are separately seeking reams of documents from at least seven companies tied to Lindberg and Eli Global, the North Carolina-based investment firm he founded. Those companies are listed on a federal subpoena, which was first reported by WRAL in North Carolina. The federal subpoena seeks records from companies “associated with Eli Global.”

The federal investigation could have major ripple effects in Florida political circles. Beyond Scott, Lindberg and his companies have given nearly $80,000 to Scott-appointed Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, whose office houses the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, and nearly $230,000 to current or future House speakers and Senate presidents. None of those powerful state lawmakers professed to knowing who Lindberg was nor what his issues were. It’s unclear when the federal probe began, but WRAL reported that it has likely been underway for all of 2018. Based on that time frame, it means Lindberg showered more than $600,000 on dozens of Florida politicians and committees as his companies were being targeted by federal investigators.

The 17-page subpoena was sent to an official in the North Carolina Office of Insurance whose name was redacted. The official was subpoenaed to testify in front of a federal grand jury on Oct. 16 as part of the Eli Global probe. The subpoena indicates “an official criminal investigation of a suspected felony is being conducted by the United States and a federal grand jury.”

On its final page, the subpoena specifies that documents and testimony are being sought as part of a probe tied to “an investigation of drug offenses, crimes against financial institutions, or money laundering crimes.”

Patronis and Scott are the biggest recipients of cash from Lindberg and his affiliated companies, but they are by no means the only Florida politicians to get contributions.

The Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, which coordinates GOP state Senate races and is run by incoming Senate President Bill Galvano, received $70,000; a committee run by future Senate President Wilton Simpson, got $70,000; the committee run by incoming House Speaker Jose Oliva, got $20,000; another $25,000 went to the committee run by outgoing House Speaker Richard Corcoran; and $20,000 went to committees run by future Republican House speakers Paul Renner of Jacksonville and Chris Sprowls of Tampa.

The list of recipients reads like a who’s-who of Florida politics, but most contacted by POLITICO either did not respond to requests seeking comment or said they did not know who Lindberg was even as he was helping fund their political committees. POLITICO first reached out to the recipients of Lindberg cash in August and made a second round of inquiries on Oct. 4, after the federal subpoena became public.

A spokeswoman for Patronis’ official office said it has no record of him meeting with Lindberg or any officials with companies he owns, but the campaign says he attended a November political event.

“Mr. Lindberg attended a campaign fundraising event last November,” Katie Strickland, a spokeswoman for the Patronis campaign, said in an email.

Strickland did not return follow up questions about whether the two directly spoke at the event or where it was held.

Both the campaign and Patronis’ formal office said he knew nothing about the federal probe or that one of Lindberg’s companies was found “financially impaired” and spent nearly all of 2017 not in compliance with a consent order imposed by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation in January 2017. That office is led by Insurance Commissioner David Altmire, but gets support from Patronis’ office. Patronis also sits on the panel with Scott, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and Attorney General Pam Bondi, that oversees the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. As CFO, Patronis has veto power over the selection of insurance commissioners.

“There are likely numerous orders issued every year, and they go through OIR, not the CFO’s office,” Anna Alexopoulos Farrar, Patronis’ communication director, said, using the abbreviation for the insurance office.

Galvano said he does “not recall meeting with him or an associate” when asked about Lindberg after the federal subpoena became public. Most other recipients of five-digit contributions from Lindberg did not return requests seeking comment after the subpoena became public.

Corcoran said he does not remember ever meeting Lindberg and was unaware of his issues at the state or federal level.

Sprowls said Oct. 4 he had “never met with him [Lindberg], nor am I aware of any of his issues before an executive branch agency, the Legislature or the federal government.”

“I’ve never met him or heard of any of his OIR issues,” Simpson said Oct. 4 in an interview.

State Rep. Jim Boyd, a Republican insurance agent from Bradenton, said in a text message sent to POLITICO in August that Lindberg is a “businessman interested in the Florida business market and good public policy that pertains to a vibrant market place.”

At that time, Boyd, whose political committee received $20,000 from Lindberg, did not respond to follow-up questions about whether he has met with Lindberg.

When asked Oct. 4 about the federal subpoena, he said that he had never met with Lindberg and was unaware of the federal probe or any issues his companies were having with Florida insurance regulators. He said “nope” when asked that day if he has ever spoken with anyone about Lindberg or his issues in Florida. He said he responded to the initial inquiry in August because he remembered getting a campaign check.

“No idea about an OIR consent order,” Boyd said. “I remember he contributed to my campaign [political committee].”

The federal subpoena was sent Sept. 11 from the office of Andrew Murray, the President Donald Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Most of the companies listed on the subpoena have also been enmeshed in a lengthy fight with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation going back to 2016, according to court records, regulatory filings and OIR documents — some of which are exempt from state public records laws — reviewed by POLITICO over the past five months.

Companies listed include Southland National Insurance Corporation, a Lindberg company listed on the federal subpoena, being non-compliant with a key provision of the consent order signed after OIR said the company was “financially impaired” based on its 2015 annual report with the office. Wrangling over that issue led to the consent order and Southland National Insurance Corporation, which was acquired by Eli Global in 2014, not complying with that deal for the first three quarters of 2017.

The web of companies on the radar of state regulators are part of Eli Global, a private company that Lindberg owns. That company has acquired 132 separate companies, which are described as “Eli’s portfolios” on the company website. Eli Global operates in industries beyond insurance, a sector in which it has several companies, including those targeted by federal investigators and Florida regulators.

The companies listed on the federal subpoena and on the radar of Florida regulators are represented by well-known insurance lobbyist Fred Karlinsky, who co-chairs the insurance practice of lobbying and legal giant Greenberg Traurig. He is one of Scott’s chief political allies and has a well-worn reputation for raising large amounts of campaign contributions from clients for candidates and committees.

Under Scott, Karlinsky has become one of the state’s most influential insurance lobbyists, a position he has used to help raise campaign contributions for candidates, most prominently of whom is Scott. Karlinsky co-chaired Scott’s finance committee during his 2014 reelection bid and helped raise money for Scott’s inauguration party after he won reelection.

The veteran lobbyist has been appointed by Scott to key state boards, including most recently the Constitution Revision Commission, which recommends changes to the Florida constitution, and the Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission, which is charged with vetting applicants to the state’s highest court. Underscoring the prestige of that position, the JNC is currently in a legal fight over whether Scott can fill three soon-to-be vacant posts on the Florida Supreme Court before his term as governor ends in January.

POLITICO sent Karlinsky a host of questions and documents in July asking about issues Lindberg has had with state regulators, but he declined to comment for this story. Through a spokeswoman, he declined to comment Oct. 5 when asked about the federal probe because it’s an “ongoing investigation.”

Lindberg also declined to comment when asked in July about his issues before Florida regulators.

“Greg Lindberg will be offering no comment at this time,” said Mike Trainor, vice president of S&A Communications, which handles Lindberg’s media calls.

An outside attorney working for Eli Global and Global Bankers Insurance Group, both of which are listed on the federal subpoena, on Oct. 6 acknowledged the probe.

“We are aware of a federal investigation,” attorney Aaron Tobin said via email. “We intend to cooperate with the government and provide information it requests. We are continuing to operate as usual, and our entire team is focused on serving our clients and businesses.”

‘Good work’

Lindberg turned on the Florida campaign cash spigot in November 2017, the same month Florida insurance regulators realized that Lindberg-owned and Karlinsky-represented Southland National Insurance Company was not complying with the OIR-imposed order crafted after officials said the company was financially impaired. Southland was officially informed by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, which is overseen by Patronis’ office, on Nov. 1 that it was not in compliance with the order signed 10 months earlier.

The first Lindberg-linked political contribution in Florida was $50,000 on Nov. 20, less than a month after the initial non-compliance letter. The donation was from from Dunhill Holdings, a company in his name, to a state political committee controlled by Scott. Six days later, Dunhill gave $50,000 to Patronis’ political committee. It was the same month Lindberg attended the Patronis campaign fundraiser.

Elaine Walker, a Greenberg Traurig spokeswoman, said Karlinsky was at the same Patronis November fundraiser that Lindberg attended, but it was a coincidence and he didn’t bring his out-of-state client to the event.

“Fred was at the Patronis event by himself,” Walker said.

The January 2017 consent order originally agreed to with OIR is littered with Lindberg companies now listed in the federal subpoena.

The order required Southland National Insurance Corporation to transfer its 926 Florida policies to Bankers Life Insurance Company, which is another Lindberg insurer. Both are listed in the federal subpoena. Rather than making that transfer, though, Southland National Insurance Company ceded the policies to another Lindberg company called Southland National Reinsurance Incorporation, which was in violation of the order, according to the OIR. Southland National Reinsurance Corporation is a subsidiary of Southland National Holdings, which is also listed in the federal subpoena. After being flagged by the office, the assets were ceded to Bankers Life Insurance Company in December 2017, and OIR officials dropped the issue.

“Good work to you all for following up on this and making sure they are in full compliance!” Carolyn Morgan, OIR’s director of Financial Oversight for Life and Health Insurance, wrote in a Dec. 13, 2017 email to a handful of OIR attorneys and regulators who worked to get Southland in line with the order inked nearly one year earlier. The email was among those POLITICO obtained via public records requests.

During the six weeks between Southland being flagged for non-compliance and the Morgan email, Lindberg and Dunhill Holdings gave a combined $167,000 in campaign contributions. Among those contributions was $50,000 each to a political committee controlled by Scott and another controlled by Patronis. As CFO, Patronis does not answer to the governor, but was appointed by Scott to the rest of an open CFO term after the resignation of former CFO Jeff Atwater. Scott and Patronis are longtime political allies. Lindberg has given nearly $80,000 to a Patronis-controlled committee, making him one of the biggest donors to Patronis’ first political campaign as CFO.

Overall, Lindberg and his companies have so far given $478,000 to state-level candidates and $787,000 total to Florida candidates running for both state and federal office during the 2018 election cycle, according to state campaign finance records.

Of that, $300,000 went to a federal super PAC backing Scott’s run for U.S. Senate against Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.). The Jan. 31 contribution remains the super PAC’s third biggest. As a declared candidate, Scott can no longer coordinate with the super PAC, called New Republican, but at the time of the Jan. 31 contribution, Scott chaired it and was actively raising money for the committee.

Melissa Stone, the longtime Scott staffer who now runs that super PAC and is a top adviser for Patronis’ campaign, did not return a request seeking comment. Scott’s official office said in July and again on Oct. 6 that there was no record of Scott meeting with Lindberg or officials with his companies, and he was unaware with their issues.

“Governor Scott has not met or discussed issues with this person involving official business,” said McKinley Lewis, a Scott spokesman, who said “no” when asked if Scott knew about the federal investigation.

The source of the cash influx is now becoming a more prominent figure as federal officials dig in to Eli Global and its affiliated companies.

The federal subpoena lists an FBI special agent and an FBI forensic accountant as contacts. Shelley Lynch, a spokeswoman for the FBI in North Carolina said she could not “confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.”

Barry Smith, a spokesman for North Carolina Commissioner of Insurance Mike Causey, said he is aware of an ongoing federal investigation ”involving Eli Global, LLC,” but declined to comment further.

The fight over Southland’s finances was not Lindberg’s only problem with Florida insurance regulators. Others were outlined in a weekly update sent from Sharon Ford, then an OIR analyst in the division overseeing life insurance, to Champa Burns, an OIR financial examiner, on Dec. 5, 2017. It showed Lindberg-owned insurers were facing reviews in Florida and North Carolina — where he has already gained attention for becoming an overnight political rainmaker — and a possible examination from a national insurance standards-setting group. In each instance, records point to regulators antsy that Lindberg was operating cash-strapped life insurance companies.

The December update, given as Lindberg was ramping up his political efforts, was exempt from state public records laws because it detailed potentially active investigations, but was accidentally released as part of several public records requests made by POLITICO. The information, deemed non-public by OIR, gives a peek at the extent to which Lindberg’s companies, some of which are now listed on the federal subpoena, were being scrutinized. Its highlights include:

— A confirmation that Southland was non-compliant with the OIR order for the first three-quarters of 2017.

— That Bankers Life Insurance Company filed an “impaired financial statement” in the second quarter of 2017 and needed to sell a $15 million surplus note to get in compliance.

— A separate “limited scope financial examination” was conducted of Southland’s investment portfolio.

— Scott Wicker, a North Carolina insurance regulator, advised Florida officials that the National Association of Insurance Commissioners was considering convening a “Financial Analysis Working Group“ that would focus on Bankers and Southland. A FAWG looks at “significant insurers and groups that exhibit characteristics of trending toward or being financially troubled.”

— And there was an ongoing holding company examination to determine the “reasonableness of the valuation of some of Mr. Greg Lindberg’s largest assets.” This exam was being conducted by North Carolina insurance officials, giving indication the company was getting actively investigated by state regulators there in late 2017.

As the Lindberg-owned insurers were facing scrutiny over their financial health, three of them — Southland, Bankers and Colorado Bankers Life Insurance Co. — paid between $60,000 and $400,000 in lobbying fees to Karlinsky, according to lobbying compensation reports, which only require a range of reporting. In a December deal negotiated by Karlinsky, Bankers acquired Michigan-based insurer Pavonia Holdings Inc. for $120 million. In the first quarter of 2018, that company became the fourth Lindberg insurer to pay Greenberg Traurig lobbying fees, kicking in up to $10,000, lobbying compensation reports show.

Southland National Insurance Corporation, Global Bankers Insurance Group, Colorado Bankers Life Insurance Company and Pavonia are each listed in the federal subpoena. American Academy Holdings is another Lindberg company listed, but has no apparent direct tie to the Florida insurance issues. The company operates AAPC, a Utah-based educational and certification body for medical coders whose slogan is “Advancing the Business of Healthcare,” according to the company’s website.

‘Just an FYI’

Though many of the records reviewed by POLITICO focused on wonky work conducted by back office regulators generally removed from campaign trail politics, there was an understanding among top insurance officials in North Carolina and Florida that they were digging into the companies of someone becoming a large political player.

A Jan. 31 email from Wicker, the North Carolina Department of Insurance regulator, to Ford at Florida OIR, noted a story from WRAL titled “Who is Greg Lindberg? NC GOP’s new big-money donor described as nonpartisan ‘bootstrap entrepreneur.‘”

“Just an FYI,” Wicker wrote in the email, which contained a link to the story. “Thought you might want to make note of this in your files.”

Wicker was the same North Carolina official who advised Florida of the potential National Association of Insurance Commissioners probe into Lindberg’s companies, a warning noted in the Dec. 5 Florida OIR weekly update.

Throughout the day, the link was forwarded by OIR officials to others in the office who had dealt with Lindberg’s companies. It ultimately was sent to Craig Wright, the deputy commissioner who oversees life insurance, and Florida Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier.

The article was the first time Lindberg’s previously quiet political efforts in North Carolina had received public attention.

WRAL reported that Lindberg has given millions of dollars to both parties in North Carolina since 2016. Despite inking huge political checks, Lindberg remains a somewhat mysterious figure in North Carolina politics.

“I had not heard of him until I started seeing stories about him,” Thomas Mills, a veteran North Carolina Democratic consultant, told POLITICO when asked about Lindberg’s role in politics there. “Not sure what he’s after, but I think he is clearly trying to establish himself.”

Deal inked

The beginning of Lindberg’s fight with Florida regulators began in early 2016, when OIR issued a suspension order to Southland National Insurance Corporation after it was found “financially impaired” in violation of state laws.

The issue was sent to administrative court in late April of that year, a month before Southland issued a plan to surrender its certificate of authority to operate in Florida. That plan prompted both sides to file a motion asking the court to relinquish the case back to OIR, a move that was approved.

The July 29, 2016 filing of the motion came one day after top OIR officials met with Lindberg and high-level officials with his company. Both Lindberg and Karlinsky were in the meeting along with Altmaier, the Florida insurance commissioner, OIR General Counsel Anoush Brangaccio, now-former Deputy Insurance Commissioner, Life and Health Rich Robleto and Morgan, the OIR employee who later would send the email letting the company know it had gotten in compliance with the state-imposed order.

In January 2017, while Atwater was still in the CFO’s office, the consent order was finalized. The plan Florida insurance regulators signed off on included Southland assigning its Florida policies to Bankers Life Insurance Company, which would then set up a trust holding 102 percent of Southland liabilities to ensure there were reserves to support the new policies.

“Recently it has come to the office’s attention that various policies listed as part of the 926 policies referenced in the consent order were ceded to Southland National Reinsurance Corporation rather than Bankers Life insurance Company,” read a Nov. 1 letter from Burns at OIR to Lou Hensley, CEO of Southland National Insurance Corporation.

A month later, Southland outlined a plan to cede the assets to Bankers National Insurance Corporation, as required by the order, and the near 10 months of non-compliance was dropped by OIR.

“After OIR identified the non-compliance, the company responded and worked with us to address any concerns and parameters they were not meeting,” OIR spokeswoman Karen Kees told POLITICO. “As a result of the actions taken by OIR and the responsiveness of the company, additional administrative action was not warranted.”

Florida law includes several provisions that allow the office to ban an insurer from doing business in Florida for a number of reasons, including finding a company or anyone who can influence its business is “incompetent or untrustworthy.”

OIR deciding to allow the transfer of assets from one Lindberg-owned company to another Lindberg-owned company came after the agency had identified concerns about Southland, including being “financially impaired” and being in non-compliance with the consent order stemming from that issue.

Jon Moore, OIR’s communications director, said they considered many factors when allowing policies from the cash-strapped insurer to remain under Lindberg’s corporate umbrella.

“The OIR considered the entire Florida insurance code when conducting its review into this matter,” he said.