Jack Ciattarelli sold company to insurance magnate who was convicted of bribery

Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli in 2017 sold his company, Galen Publishing, to three companies run by insurance magnate Greg Lindberg, who in 2024 was convicted on federal bribery charges and later pleaded guilty to a $2 billion fraud and money laundering scheme.

Ciattarelli, who is running against Democratic U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill in the Nov. 4 election, sold Galen Publishing for a little more than $12.8 million to ASiM Holdings, LLC; ASiM CE, LLC; and eRADIMAGING, LLC while those companies were run by Lindberg. He made $7.1 million the year he sold his company, according to reporting from the New Jersey Monitor.

At the time of the sale, Ciattarelli was a member of the New Jersey General Assembly and served on its Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee, which regulates insurance companies – including the major life insurance firms then controlled by Lindberg.

Before his indictment, Lindberg was a top political donor in North Carolina and a billionaire businessman with companies in a wide range of industries, including life insurance and health care software. He was convicted by a federal jury in May 2024 of attempting to bribe North Carolina’s Republican insurance commissioner in 2017 and 2018. He faces up to 30 years in prison when sentenced. 

According to a May 2024 press release from the Justice Department, Lindberg and his consultant, John Gray, offered Republican Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey millions of dollars in campaign contributions in exchange for the removal of the North Carolina Department of Insurance’s senior deputy commissioner, who was responsible for overseeing the regulation of Lindberg’s company, the Global Bankers Insurance Group. 

“To conceal the bribery scheme, Lindberg directed the establishment of two corporate entities to form independent expenditure committees with the purpose of supporting the Commissioner’s re-election campaign,” the Justice Department said in its release. “Lindberg then funded the entities with $1.5 million, as promised to the Commissioner. In addition, at Lindberg’s and Gray’s direction, Hayes caused the transfer of $250,000 from monies Lindberg had previously contributed to a North Carolina state party, which Hayes chaired, to the Commissioner’s re-election campaign.”

The Assembly NC, a digital magazine covering North Carolina, reported that Causey brought concerns regarding Lindberg to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Causey would go on to wear a wire and body camera to record Lindberg agreeing to send money to the North Carolina Republican Party.

Months following this conviction, Lindberg in November 2024 pleaded guilty to a $2 billion fraud and money laundering scheme. According to the Justice Department, from 2016 through 2019 Lindberg and his co-conspirators directed companies controlled by Lindberg to invest more than $2 billion in loans and other securities with Lindberg’s own affiliated companies and then laundered the proceeds. 

“As set forth in the indictment, Lindberg directed the scheme and personally benefitted from the fraud in part by ‘forgiving’ more than $125 million in loans to himself from the insurance companies that he controlled,” the Justice Department states.

The company that Ciattarelli sold, Galen Publishing, has been at the center of a contentious debate between the Republican candidate and his Democratic opponent. Galen Publishing produced medical educational materials for universities, among others, including with money from pharmaceutical companies, according to reporting from the New York Times.

During an Oct. 8 debate, Sherrill accused Ciattarelli of spreading misinformation about the safety of opioid drugs while he owned Galen Publishing. The Republican candidate then accused Sherril of accepting money from pharmaceutical companies that settled opioid-related lawsuits. A New Jersey Independent review of campaign finance records found that Ciattarelli and Sherrill received donations from such companies.

Ciattarelli said he plans to file a defamation lawsuit against Sherrill over the opioid accusations. On Oct. 27, the New Jersey Election Law Commission ruled that Ciattarelli can use his own money to file a defamation lawsuit against Sherrill prior to the election without breaking the state’s campaign finance law.