The sentencing of Aspiration co-founder Joseph Sanberg to 14 years in federal prison on Monday brings the NBA a step closer to concluding its nine-month investigation into the Clippers allegedly circumventing the salary cap.<\/p>\n
Sanberg pleaded guilty<\/a> in October to federal charges<\/a> of conspiring to bilk investors out of $248 million for portraying the now-defunct Aspiration as a \u201csocially-conscious and sustainable banking services and investment products\u201d firm.<\/p>\n The NBA has declined to comment on the status of the probe centered on $60 million invested in Aspiration by Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and the $28-million contract<\/a> Clippers star Kawhi Leonard<\/a> signed with Aspiration for endorsement and marketing work that he never delivered.<\/p>\n Players are allowed to have separate endorsement and other business deals, but at issue is whether the Clippers participated in arranging the side deal<\/a> beyond simply introducing Aspiration executives to Leonard. Doing so would be a violation of Article 13 of the NBA collective bargaining agreement, <\/a>punishable by a $4.5-million fine, the loss of a first-round draft pick and the voiding of Leonard\u2019s contract. <\/p>\n The NBA draft takes place June 23-24 and the Clippers have three picks, including the fifth overall selection. The league is not expected to release its findings until after the NBA Finals, which begin Wednesday between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs. <\/p>\n Clippers officials haven\u2019t commented on the investigation. But Leonard, who has one year left on a three-year, $149.5-million contract that will pay him $50.3 million next season, told The Athletic<\/a> after the Clippers\u2019 season-ending game April 15 that \u201cI think we\u2019re going to be in the clear. I\u2019m not stressing.\u201d<\/p>\n Otherwise, among the few public comments about the investigation were letters submitted to federal court judge Stephen V. Wilson ahead of Sanberg\u2019s sentencing by Ballmer and the law firm conducting the probe on behalf of the NBA.<\/p>\n The letter from Dave Anders of Wachtell Lipton stated that Sanberg provided documentation and information helpful to the NBA investigation during two in-person interviews.<\/p>\n \u201cIn all our dealings with Mr. Sanberg, both directly and through his counsel, he provided information that was consistent with our review of contemporaneous documents and other evidence,\u201d Anders wrote. \u201cMr. Sanberg\u2019s cooperation substantially assisted our investigation, including our ability to develop a more complete understanding of key events.\u201d<\/p>\n Ballmer countered by asking Wilson for a stiff sentence in a five-page Victim Impact Statement <\/a>posted on social media by his lawyer, David N. Kelley. <\/p>\n \u201cSanberg continues to exploit his fraud of Mr. Ballmer for his benefit, providing information to the NBA in return for a sentencing letter that the league submitted on his behalf,\u201d Kelley wrote. \u201cThe reliability of Sanberg\u2019s information is suspect given that he has pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges, and the government has made its own determination that he is not credible.\u201d<\/p>\n Before handing down the sentence, Wilson made it clear that Sanberg\u2019s credibility was questionable.<\/p>\n \u201cHe portrays himself as a do-gooder who was in business to help the world, but he did personally gain from his fraud,\u201d Wilson said, later adding, \u201cI would put the grade of his fraud at the zenith.\u201d<\/p>\n Ballmer, a former longtime CEO of Microsoft who has owned the Clippers since 2014, accused Sanberg of targeting him<\/a> for his well-known interest in environmental sustainability and exaggerating their relationship to convince others to invest in the fraudulent company. He said he met Sanberg only once.<\/p>\n Ballmer invested $50 million in Aspiration in September 2021. A month later, the Clippers announced a $300-million sponsorship deal with the company. Ballmer nearly granted Aspiration naming rights<\/a> to the team\u2019s new $2-billion venue as well, but instead chose financial services firm Intuit.<\/a> Ballmer made an additional $10-million investment in Aspiration on March 9, 2023.<\/p>\n Ballmer was added in November as a defendant in a civil lawsuit against Sanberg and several others associated with Aspiration. Ballmer and the other defendants are accused by 11 investors in Aspiration of fraud and aiding and abetting fraud, with the plaintiffs seeking at least $50 million in damages.<\/p>\n Kelley contended that Ballmer was added as a defendant because of his \u201cvisibility and resources,\u201d and portrayed the Clippers owner as a victim, saying \u201cMr. Ballmer\u2019s losses are not measured solely, or even primarily, on a balance sheet. They are measured in the reputational damage that will take years to remediate, and in the chilling effect on future endeavors intended to do good.\u201d<\/p>\n The lone public comment about the investigation from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver came during All-Star Weekend in February at the Intuit Dome when he described the issue as \u201cenormously complex<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou have a company in bankruptcy, you have thousands of documents, multiple witnesses that needed to be interviewed,\u201d Silver said. <\/p>\n The investigation was triggered by reports from podcaster Pablo Torre that Leonard\u2019s sponsorship deal<\/a> with Aspiration was to circumvent the salary cap. Torre and the staff of \u201cPablo Torre Finds Out\u201d won a Pulitzer Prize<\/a> for Audio Reporting for their efforts. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sentencing of Aspiration co-founder Joseph Sanberg to 14 years in federal prison on Monday brings the NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":710730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[82015,64,63,345485,10225,142407,354,345487,9392,5315,1175,71305,590,166190,345484,345486,85,82014],"class_list":["post-710729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-aspiration","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ballmer","tag-clippers","tag-defendant","tag-fraud","tag-fraudulent-company","tag-information","tag-investigation","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-letter","tag-nba","tag-nba-probe","tag-sanberg","tag-sanberg-sentencing","tag-sports","tag-steve-ballmer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=710729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}