Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, at least according to nearly a dozen former investors, knew exactly what was happening with the Aspiration-Kawhi Leonard scandal.
Ballmer was sued by 11 Aspiration investors on Monday, according to journalist Pablo Torre, alleging that he used the company “to secretly funnel millions of dollars to” Leonard.
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According to the lawsuit, Ballmer channeled funds through Aspiration, which is now known as “Catona,” in order to “induce Leonard to re-sign with the Clippers by covertly paying him more than allowed by the NBA’s salary cap rules.” Ballmer was “complicit in and aided and abetted” in the fraud, the lawsuit said. The plaintiffs also alleged that Ballmer transferred other funds to the company in order to keep it “afloat” and buy co-founder Joe Sanberg’s “support, cooperation and silence about the secret deal with Leonard.”
“A lot of people have been hurt here,” Aspiration investor and plaintiff Skip Miller told Torre. “This lawsuit is being brought to recoup their losses. We look forward to our day in court where everything will be aired out and justice will be done.”
The allegations in the lawsuit are what Torre first reported on his podcast, “Pablo Torre Finds Out,” in September. Ballmer allegedly used what was essentially a $28 million no-show marketing deal between Leonard and Aspiration to get around the NBA’s salary cap rules and pay him more, per the report. Ballmer invested $50 million in Aspiration at its founding stage in 2021.
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The NBA is now investigating. Ballmer has denied any wrongdoing. He told ESPN that any deal Leonard had with Aspiration was made independent of him and the Clippers. Leonard and the Clippers agreed to a three-year, $103.1 million deal in 2019.
Ballmer insisted that he had “no control over this company,” and that the company “conned me.”
“The speculation is what it is,” Ballmer said in September. “Why did they do that? I don’t know why they did what they did. And I don’t know how different it is. And frankly, any speculation would be crazy.
“These are guys who committed fraud. Look, they conned me. I made an investment in these guys thinking it was on the up and up. And they conned me. At this stage, I have no ability to predict why they might have done anything they did.”
The Clippers went 50-32 last season and were knocked out of the first round of the playoffs for a third straight campaign. They hold a 3-2 record this season entering Monday night’s matchup with the Miami Heat.
