Letter: Aspiration co-founder cooperated with NBA investigation

Lawyers representing the NBA and LA Clippers Owner Steve Ballmer submitted separate letters to a federal judge before Aspiration co-founder Joseph Sanberg was sentenced. Now closed green banking company in the center of Allegations of rigging in salary limit The league is investigating.

David Anders, a Wachtel Lipton lawyer, is leading the NBA’s investigation into whether the Clippers circumvented the league’s salary cap for compensation kawhi leonardAccording to an April 17 letter to Judge Stephen V. Wilson of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Sanberg sat down for two in-person interviews and provided documents and “information that was relevant to our investigation” through his attorneys.

“In all of our dealings with Mr. Sanberg, both directly and through his attorney, he provided information that was consistent with our review of contemporaneous documents and other evidence,” Anders wrote. “Mr. Sanberg’s cooperation greatly assisted our investigation, including our ability to develop a more complete understanding of the key events. At no time during our dealings with Mr. Sanberg and his counsel did he make, nor did we make any promises in exchange for his cooperation.”

Sanberg will be sentenced on April 27 in federal court in Los Angeles. he first Convicted of two counts of wire fraud Prosecutors said he defrauded investors of $248 million for his role in a scheme. Each case carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. According to recent court filings, Sanberg’s attorneys are seeking a lesser sentence.

The letter is the first public comment from an NBA investigator about the league’s investigation. NBA begins its investigation In September 2025, podcaster Pablo Torre, citing internal documents and an interview with an unnamed Aspiration employee, Leonard’s reported $28 million sponsorship deal The salary cap was to be bypassed. Torre noted that the deal comes about seven months after Ballmer personally invested $50 million in Aspiration in September 2021 and the Clippers made an announcement. $300 million, 23-year sponsorship deal From the company. Ballmer invested an additional $10 million on March 9, 2023.

In a five-page letter to the judge obtained by ESPN, a lawyer for Ballmer said the Clippers owner lost his entire $60 million investment in Aspiration, which declared bankruptcy in 2025, and his reputation suffered “incomparable” damage. The Clippers “lost nearly all of the $300 million in sponsorship payments, and more than $20 million held in escrow for additional carbon offset purchases, which were never made and the money was not returned,” according to the letter, which was filed in court by a source with knowledge of the situation.

Ballmer’s attorney also said he was “blatantly deceived” by Sanberg and claimed Sanberg targeted Ballmer for his wealth and passion for environmental sustainability while using his relationship with Ballmer to attract other investors.

“This is especially disingenuous, considering he barely spoke to Sanberg at the Clippers game other than congratulating Sanberg,” Ballmer’s lawyer wrote. “Mr. Ballmer recalls speaking to Sanberg only once, and that only briefly when they both attended a public event.”

Sanberg’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to an April 19 court filing, Sanberg’s attorneys asked the judge for a lesser sentence, saying the potential sentence outweighs his culpability. He also says the government has portrayed Sanberg as a “greedy Ponzi schemer who fleeced victims and lined his own pockets, as well as causing corporate bankruptcies.”

Rather, he wrote, “Joe’s focus has always been on the cause over personal gain. His conduct in this case was not motivated by greed, and he derived little financial benefit from it. Today, he is penniless and lives in his mother’s home, his career and reputation ruined.

“The lessons he has learned from this case, and the remorse he feels, are genuine. All he wants is a chance to pay compensation, take care of his mother, and continue working to serve the poor.”

The April 19 filing from Sanberg’s lawyers included more than a dozen letters from friends, family and former Aspiration investors in support of Sanberg and his character.

Ballmer’s attorney wrote that in the wake of the allegations, Ballmer conducted an internal review of the Clippers organization and directed team employees and employees of his charitable organization to cooperate with the NBA investigation. According to the letter, Ballmer’s lawyers sought information from Sanberg, who declined multiple requests.

The NBA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Clippers declined to comment.

Ballmer’s lawyer also wrote that Torre’s reporting was “a vitriolic public campaign against Mr. Ballmer” and “based largely on anonymous gossip.”

In a statement to ESPN, Torre said, “Last month, Pablo Torre Finds Out published a federal whistleblower complaint signed by two former Aspiration employees, detailing how the Clippers allegedly used carbon credits to ‘pay Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard an incentive bonus to circumvent the NBA salary cap, disguised as an organic marketing sponsorship agreement.’

“This complaint, submitted under penalty of perjury, was made in 2023, long before I obtained over 3,000 pages of internal documents and financial documents. To dismiss the last year of our careful reporting as ‘gossip’ is also to dismiss the same whistleblowers who provided the federal government with the roadmap to successfully convict Joseph Sanberg.”

Ballmer is named in a lawsuit filed by 11 former Aspiration investors who say Sanberg and others at the company defrauded them of millions. Ballmer was added to the lawsuit, which was initially filed in July 2025, in November 2025, with investors alleging that he participated in the fraud by giving money to Leonard. Ballmer has denied the claims, and his lawyers have asked the court to determine that the investors failed to allege sufficient facts to state a legal claim, and for the case to be dismissed.

At the end of his letter, Ballmer’s lawyers asked the judge for a sentence that would “take years to repair the reputational damage, and have a chilling effect on future efforts to do good on a large scale.”