As many as a dozen letters \u2014 including one from the NBA \u2014 were submitted by the attorney for Aspiration Partners co-founder Joe Sanberg ahead of his sentencing Monday in an effort to persuade the judge to trim the 17 years prosecutors have requested for each of the two counts of fraud. <\/p>\n
Sanberg pleaded guilty<\/a> in October to the federal charges 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 Another letter was also submitted, however, and it wasn\u2019t intended to assist Sanberg.<\/p>\n Clippers owner Steve Ballmer\u2019s attorney David N. Kelley of O\u2019Melveny and Myers wrote that Ballmer was defrauded of a $60-million investment in Aspiration and that the harm to his reputation is \u201cimmeasurable.\u201d<\/p>\n The five-page Victim Impact Statement <\/a>concludes: \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 at scale.<\/p>\n \u201cWe ask the court to impose a sentence that accounts for those harms, promotes respect for the law, and deters those who would seek to appropriate the reputations of others to advance fraudulent aims.\u201d<\/p>\n The letter states that the Clippers lost out on a $300 million sponsorship agreement with Sanberg in exchange for the team to wear Aspiration jerseys patches. Also lost was about $20 million the Clippers paid for carbon offset purchases and the $60 million Ballmer invested in the company. <\/p>\n Ballmer, a former longtime CEO of Microsoft, 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. In the letter, Ballmer says he met Sanberg only once.<\/p>\n Ballmer was added in November as a defendant in an existing 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 The letter dismisses the allegations in the lawsuit as \u201cnonsense,\u201d stating Ballmer was added as a defendant because of his \u201cvisibility and resources,\u201d and reiterates that Ballmer himself is a victim of fraud. The action has damaged his reputation, the letter states, \u201cand has further linked Mr. Ballmer to Sanberg\u2019s fraud in the eyes of the public.\u201d <\/p>\n The letter to the court, however, makes no mention of the $28-million contract<\/a> Clippers star Kawhi Leonard signed with Aspiration for endorsement and marketing work. 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.<\/p>\n