{"id":750248,"date":"2026-06-02T05:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T05:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/750248\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T05:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T05:06:15","slug":"aspiration-co-founder-sentenced-to-14-years-in-prison-after-wire-fraud-amid-nba-investigation-clippers-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/750248\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspiration co-founder sentenced to 14 years in prison after wire fraud amid NBA investigation, Clippers scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aspiration co-founder Joseph Sanberg was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison on Monday after he pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud, according to ESPN\u2019s Baxter Holmes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sanberg was behind the now-defunct green banking company<\/a> that is the focus of the NBA\u2019s investigation into the Los Angeles Clippers and their deals with star Kawhi Leonard, something journalist Pablo Torre first reported on and later won a Pulitzer Prize for<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Prosecutors said that Sanberg defrauded investors and lenders out of $248 million by obtaining loans and falsifying bank statements. They were seeking a prison sentence of nearly 18 years, though Sanberg\u2019s attorney argued he displayed \u201cno malice, no ill will and no greed\u201d while arguing he should avoid prison all together.<\/p>\n

Judge Stephen V. Wilson said that Sanberg\u2019s actions were \u201camong the worst I\u2019ve ever seen\u201d on the bench, and that the case had \u201ctouched almost every badge of fraud,\u201d according to ESPN. Wilson sentenced Sanberg to 14 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI accept that I lost my moral compass and wrongly stepped over the line, and I\u2019m very sorry,\u201d Sanberg said in court. \u201cI broke the law \u2026 I’m sorry. I\u2019m so sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aspiration\u2019s ties to the Los Angeles Clippers<\/p>\n

Aspiration was founded in 2013 as an environmentally conscious digital bank. While several notable celebrities and companies partnered with the company over the years, Aspiration signed a $300 million endorsement deal with the Clippers in 2021 and a $28 million deal with Leonard the following year.<\/p>\n

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In September, Torre reported that Ballmer and the Clippers used Aspiration as a way to circumvent the NBA\u2019s salary cap and pay Leonard more money to sign with the team in free agency. The deal with Leonard was reported essentially as a no-show marketing agreement.<\/p>\n

Ballmer, who said he invested $60 million of his own money into the company, repeatedly continued to donate to Aspiration even after the government started investigating the company for fraud, according to Torre\u2019s reporting. Ballmer initially called Torre\u2019s reporting \u201cgossip.\u201d<\/p>\n

In April, Ballmer sent a letter to the judge<\/a> overseeing Sanberg\u2019s case detailing all the ways he said he was defrauded by both Sanberg and Aspiration. Ballmer described himself as a \u201cclear and undisputed victim\u201d here, and claimed he was targeted for his \u201creputation for integrity, and genuine passion for sustainability.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ballmer has acknowledged introducing Aspiration to Leonard, but he denied any knowledge of the $28 million endorsement deal. Leonard has also denied any wrongdoing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The NBA announced in September that it was launching an investigation into Ballmer\u2019s relationship with Aspiration. That is still ongoing, and it\u2019s unclear when it will wrap up. NBA commissioner Adam Silver described the probe<\/a> as \u201cenormously complex\u201d during the All-Star break in February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aspiration co-founder Joseph Sanberg was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison on Monday after he pleaded guilty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[18068,7,559,63267,44310,529,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,6,18659,92208],"class_list":["post-750248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-clippers","tag-aspiration","tag-basketball","tag-clippers","tag-federal-prison","tag-joseph-sanberg","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-la","tag-la-clippers","tag-laclippers","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesclippers","tag-nba","tag-pablo-torre","tag-stephen-v-wilson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116678779413896944","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}