The August suit claimed that Ishbia, who bought the team in 2023, blocked access to internal records and issued a June 2, 2025, capital call to pressure and dilute minority stakeholders.

Seldin and Kohlberg allege that Ishbia, during the capital call, threatened to dilute their ownership stakes if they did not meet a 10-day deadline to fund a capital raise, while concealing that he missed the same deadline himself.

The filing claims that, had his failure been exposed, Ishbia risked significant dilution of his own stake and jeopardized his net worth and status as an NBA team owner.

Now, Kohlberg and Seldin are claiming that “Ishbia decimated the Company’s finances, ostracized his partners and refused to disclose the terms of significant transactions
that, as the Minority Owners later came to learn, he was on both sides of.”

The suit also alleges that Ishbia spent heavily on player and coaching contracts, paid significant NBA tax penalties and funded a lavish $20 million clubhouse called the “Ra Ra Room,” with co-owners sharing the costs. He also traded away future draft picks and passed up revenue opportunities, saying his focus was on winning and the fan experience.

Despite the spending, the minority owners pointed out that Ishbia acknowledged the 2024–25 season “was a failure.”

“This isn’t a lawsuit; it’s a shameless shakedown dressed up as legal process,” shared a spokesperson for Ishbia. “From day one, Mat Ishbia was transparent that he was going to do things differently. Unlike the previous ownership, Mat was going to invest real money into the Suns and Mercury and the investors could either step up with him or sell their stake and step aside. Kohlberg and Seldin stayed in and now they’re trying to freeload off the value Mat created.”

Kohlberg and Seldin are “essentially arguing for neglect and calling it strategy’

The spokesperson also said that Kohlberg and Seldin “want to drag the organization backward,” citing that “they openly admit in this filing that investing in the team and its fans ‘makes no business sense.’ They’re essentially arguing for neglect and calling it strategy.”

Among the several allegations, Kohlberg and Seldin also claim that Ishbia extended a loan to the Suns at an interest rate well above market levels, sold the naming rights to the arena to his mortgage company without disclosing terms to minority partners and leased the Phoenix Mercury’s practice facility from himself at undisclosed rates.

They also claim he created a new entity, the “Player 15 Group,” which they say appears to hold assets that belong to the Suns.

Ishbia is ‘using the [Suns’] money for his own gain’

“The reality is that Ishbia is using the Suns as his personal piggy bank,” the suit reads. “Ishbia has blown through the [Suns’] money for his own gain, he plans to use the naming rights
and a sponsorship agreement to reap the benefits for his ‘mortgage business’ where he actually “make[s] money.”

Michael Carlinsky of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, an attorney representing Seldin and Kohlberg, shared a statement saying “We have now filed our claims for fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract to expose the misconduct by Mr. Ishbia. Among other things, we believe the evidence will show that Mr. Ishbia contrived a scheme to threaten our clients with massive dilution of their interests in the Suns if they failed to fund a capital call within 10 days’ notice, while at the same hiding his own failure to fund by the deadline.”

Carlinsky said that Ishbia “repeatedly abused his position as manager of the franchise to benefit himself — not the Suns,” and that “The Minority Owners are not alone in raising concerns about Mr. Ishbia’s business practices. The State of Ohio has filed separate fraud claims against Ishbia and United Wholesale Mortgage.”

In 2023, Ishbia acquired a 57% controlling stake in the Suns for $2.28 billion, while Sarver sold his 37% share for $1.48 billion, according to ESPN. At the time, 14 of the team’s 16 ownership partners accepted Ishbia’s buyout offer based on a $4 billion valuation. Kohlberg and Seldin, who have invested in the Suns for over two decades, were the only holdouts.