U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn is losing patience with billionaire Republican donor Greg Lindberg, who continues to delay serving his 12-year prison sentence through a series of legal maneuvers, according to the Charlotte Observer.

During a heated Monday morning hearing, Judge Cogburn warned the Durham billionaire that he was "overestimating his intelligence" by repeatedly shuffling through lawyers and contesting how much restitution he owes for bribing a North Carolina official and orchestrating a $2 billion scheme to defraud insurance companies.

Lindberg, founder and CEO of the private equity firm Eli Global LLC — since renamed Global Growth — was recently sentenced to more than a decade in prison. The case ranks among the largest insurance fraud prosecutions in U.S. history by dollar amount. Judge Cogburn noted that this was a "lighter sentence" made possible by Lindberg's proactive payments to his victims.

"The defendant, and possibly strategically, wanted to show he was going to pay restitution for a lighter sentence," Cogburn said. Now that Lindberg has been sentenced, "he wants that money back."

A special master tasked with determining Lindberg's restitution said he still owes more than $1.6 billion. Lindberg disputes this figure and has retained a new attorney to argue that the special master should be disqualified and is acting unconstitutionally.

According to the Observer, Lindberg "siphoned more than $2 billion" from his insurance companies and spent "more than $60 million of money on yachts, jets and women." Insurance companies are required by state regulators to maintain reserves sufficient to pay policyholder claims, meaning diverted funds directly threatened the financial security of the people who paid premiums expecting coverage. Lindberg's attorneys stated that he had already paid victims $1 billion before the court ordered him to do so — the largest restitution ever paid in the state.

Lindberg was once the largest political donor to the North Carolina Republican Party. He pleaded guilty last year to leading a $2 billion fraud and money laundering scheme that profited off thousands of people insured through his Durham-based companies. In a separate trial, Lindberg was convicted of attempting to bribe NC Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey, a Republican, who wore a wire for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to record Lindberg. The bribery attempt targeted the very official responsible for regulating Lindberg's insurance holdings.

Lindberg's original attorneys had withdrawn from the case, and other attorneys began filing motions without any signed designation as his new counsel. In the minutes before the hearing began, Cogburn noted that Lindberg's new attorney, Vivek Ramachandran, and another attorney, Kenneth Barnes, had filed 10 motions in Lindberg's docket.

"What's the deal? We're not playing games," said Cogburn. "This court has given a fair sentence. This sounds like a delay!"

The judge also cautioned: "We're not dummies here. We know fraud when we see it."

Cogburn, who has presided over the case since 2019, is expected to rule on the restitution by August 24.

"It's been a long case," said Cogburn. "And apparently, it's going to be longer."