A Florida federal judge on Thursday dismissed disgraced insurance mogul Greg Lindberg's lawsuit seeking to pause enforcement of a $524 million arbitral award, saying Florida is the wrong venue for the dispute.

U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell granted Universal Life Insurance Co.'s bid to toss Lindberg's suit seeking to compel arbitration under a reinsurance agreement between ULICO and Lindberg's company, PB Life and Annuity Co. Ltd., because the agreement's choice of law provision states that Puerto Rican law governs.

She also rejected Lindberg's argument that even if arbitration must happen in Puerto Rico, the Florida court could order arbitration there while retaining jurisdiction over the petition. That's not the approach that most courts have taken, she said.

"Thus, this court will follow the majority approach applied by other courts in the Eleventh Circuit," Judge Honeywell said. "Under this approach, the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico is the correct venue for Lindberg to compel arbitration since Puerto Rico is the situs of the forum selection clause."

ULICO won the $524 million arbitration award against PBLA in June 2020 after accusing Lindberg of misappropriating funds allocated to a trust as part of the reinsurance agreement with PBLA.

After the award was not paid in time, ULICO filed a claim against Lindberg in the Middle District of North Carolina, which ruled in the insurer's favor. The Fourth Circuit later upheld the arbitration award.

In August 2024, the Wake County Superior Court in North Carolina granted ULICO's request for a general receiver over Lindberg's assets to enforce the judgment. Lindberg has appealed that decision and filed his own lawsuit in November 2024 in Florida.

In the Florida suit, Lindberg said the Fourth Circuit specifically affirmed that a guaranty agreement between Lindberg and ULICO meant that Lindberg was personally liable for the arbitration award against PBLA. But he said the appeals court "declined to address any of Lindberg's claims and defenses related to his satisfaction of the preliminary award and his satisfaction of his guaranteed obligations."

He asked the Florida court to compel arbitration on those claims and defenses.

The arbitration award dispute comes after a North Carolina federal jury found Lindberg guilty in May 2024 of trying to bribe the state's insurance commissioner by making campaign contributions in exchange for weaker oversight. Lindberg then pled guilty in November 2024 to certain criminal charges for lying to state insurance regulators and defrauding policyholders.

Lindberg is represented by Michael G. Newell of Newell Law and Carl D. Berry of The Strategic Legal Group PLLC.

ULICO is represented by John Sikes Gibbs III of Troutman Pepper Locke LLP.

The case is Lindberg v. Universal Life Insurance Company, case number 8:24-cv-002602, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.