North Carolina General Statutes Chapter 58. Insurance § 58-19-60. Recovery

(a) If an order for liquidation or rehabilitation of a domestic insurer has been entered, the receiver appointed under such order has a right to recover on behalf of the insurer, (i) from any parent corporation or insurance holding company or person or affiliate who otherwise controlled the insurer, the amount of distributions (other than distributions of shares of the same class of stock) paid by the insurer on its capital stock, or (ii) any payment in the form of a bonus, termination settlement, or extraordinary lump sum salary adjustment made by the insurer or its subsidiary or subsidiaries to a director, officer, or employee, where the distribution or payment pursuant to (i) or (ii) above is made at any time during the one year preceding the petition for liquidation or rehabilitation, as the case may be, subject to the limitations of subsections (b), (c), and (d) of this section.

(b) No such distribution is recoverable if the parent or affiliate shows that when paid such distribution was lawful and reasonable, and that the insurer did not know and could not reasonably have known that such distribution might adversely affect the ability of the insurer to fulfill its contractual obligations.

(c) Any person that was a parent corporation or insurance holding company or a person that otherwise controlled the insurer or affiliate at the time such distributions were paid is liable up to the amount of distributions or payments under subsection (a) of this section such person received. Any person who otherwise controlled the insurer at the time such distributions were declared is liable up to the amount of distributions he would have received if they had been paid immediately. If two or more persons are liable with respect to the same distributions, they are jointly and severally liable.

(d) The maximum amount recoverable under this section is the amount needed in excess of all other available assets of the insurer to pay its contractual obligations and to reimburse any guaranty funds.

(e) To the extent that any person liable under subsection (c) of this section is insolvent or otherwise fails to pay claims due from it pursuant to that subsection, its parent corporation, insurance holding company, or person who otherwise controlled it at the time that the distribution was paid, are jointly and severally liable for any resulting deficiency in the amount recovered from such parent corporation or insurance holding company or person who otherwise controlled it.