NC billionaire Greg Lindberg hires ex-Trump bodyguard to seek pardon from president

Danielle Battaglia, The News & Observer (Raleigh) on Oct 23, 2025

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WASHINGTON — A Durham billionaire, twice convicted of masterminding a bribery scheme in North Carolina, hired President Donald Trump’s former bodyguard to lobby for a pardon on his behalf.

Greg Lindberg, 55, is in a Gastonia jail awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty in a related case to conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

He was once a top political donor in North Carolina, until his influence over the North Carolina Republican Party fell apart in 2018 after Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey wore a wire for the FBI, helping show that Lindberg bribed him with millions of dollars to terminate a regulator who became suspicious of Lindberg’s business practices.

That helped unravel the separate “scheme to defraud insurance regulators and policyholders,” according to the Department of Justice.

It also led to the convictions of Lindberg’s employee John Gray and NCGOP chairman Robin Hayes. Hayes successfully sought a pardon from Trump in January 2021.

The New York Times first reported Lindberg was seeking a pardon in March, after seemingly coming close to getting one during Trump’s first administration.

On Monday, Javelin Advisors LLC, a company run by two former Trump advisers, filed a lobbying registration form to Congress showing that Lindberg hired Keith Schiller, one of the company’s leaders, to seek a pardon from Trump on his behalf. From July to September, Lindberg has paid less than $5,000 for Schiller’s services.

Schiller has a long history in Trump’s orbit.

He worked as a police officer in New York City before becoming the head of security at Trump Tower in the 2000s. The New York Times previously reported that Schiller would travel with him on business trips and later campaign stops when he ran for president.

He became Trump’s deputy assistant and director of Oval Office operations for nine months in Trump’s first term, which is noted in the lobbying disclosure.

Previously, a company Lindberg owns had paid The Vogel Group $30,000 between April 1 and June 30 to seek clemency from the White House. A lobbying report filed on July 21 doesn’t say who The Vogel Group was seeking clemency for, but it lists their client as Magma Power LLC, a company owned by Lindberg.

Lindberg is listed as having been outside the federal Bureau of Prisons’ custody since his initial conviction was overturned due to an overreach in jury instructions. The address for Lindberg used in Schiller’s lobbying report is that of a jail in Gastonia.

Federal court records show that Lindberg turned himself in in Gastonia in November 2024, after pleading guilty in the conspiracy case and being found guilty by a jury of bribery and honest services wire fraud in the related case. Court officials appointed a special master to determine how much restitution is owed to his victims, a process that has taken more than a year and has held up his sentencing.

His initial sentence, which was later overturned, was 7 years and 3 months.

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