By Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday that it had charged the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, Robert “Robin” Hayes, along with the state’s biggest political donor in a corruption scheme that targeted a state official.
According to an indictment unsealed on Tuesday, Hayes worked with business executive Greg Lindberg to bribe state insurance commissioner Mike Causey. Causey reported the effort to law enforcement officials and cooperated in the investigation, authorities say.
The two men, along with insurance executives John Gray, 68, and John Palermo, 63, were charged with conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, bribery. Hayes is also charged with lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Hayes denies the charges, his lawyer said.
“We look forward to a swift conclusion to this matter, and to clearing his name,” attorney Kearns Davis said.
According to the indictment, the four men promised to spend millions of dollars on Causey’s re-election if he would
remove an insurance regulator that oversaw companies under Lindberg’s control. They said they would set up independent corporations that would spend $1.5 million on Causey’s re-election bid and funnel another $250,000 through the state Republican party.
Lindberg is the founder and chairman of investment company Eli Global and the owner of Global Bankers Insurance Group, which controls several insurance companies.
He is the state’s biggest political donor in recent years with total contributions of more than $5 million, according to news site WRAL. He was not immediately reachable for comment.
Hayes, a former U.S. Congress member, led the state party between 2011 and 2013, when it won a dominant majority in the state legislature, and again since 2016. He announced yesterday that he would step down from the position.
His lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the North Carolina Republican Party declined to comment.
North Carolina’s Republican Party has suffered a series of setbacks after several years in which it was able to push through spending cuts, voting restrictions, and other conservative policies.
An absentee ballot fraud scheme run by a party operative has forced the rerun of a 2018 U.S. congressional election, and a federal court rules last year that state Republicans illegally drew U.S. congressional districts to benefit their party.
Democrat Roy Cooper was elected as governor in 2016, breaking the Republican grip on state politics, and Democrats made significant gains in state assembly elections last year.
(Reporting by Andy Sullivan; Additional reporting by Andrew Hay; Editing by Susan Thomas, James Dalgleish and David Gregorio)
