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Drake, DiCaprio, the Clippers backed this ‘green’ L.A. firm. It crumbled amid fraud claims

Aspiration Partners made a splash when it entered the green investing space in 2013.

The Marina del Rey firm billed itself as a socially conscious online banking company, offering investments and focusing its finances on the climate crisis. It also generated and sold carbon credits meant to help offset greenhouse gas emissions.

Soon, it collected celebrity investors such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Orlando Bloom, Robert Downey Jr., and Steve Ballmer, the former Microsoft chief executive, philanthropist and owner of the Los Angeles Clippers.

But 12 years later, things have turned sour.

Earlier this year, the co-founder and another top company official agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud charges and scheming to bilk investors using falsified documents. Aspiration went bankrupt.

And now, the company is at the center of a NBA investigation into whether a $28-million deal the firm cut with Clippers star Kawhi Leonard was designed to help the team circumvent the league’s salary cap.

The Clippers have strongly denied that, and said neither the team nor Ballmer played any role in Leonard’s deal and that there was no intention to violate any NBA rules. Leonard has also denied any wrongdoing.

In a statement, the Clippers said Ballmer and his family are “focused on sustainability” and built the Clippers’ home arena at the leading edge of environmental design. Aspiration was part of that effort, the statement said, and Ballmer was “duped on the investment and on some parts of this agreement, as were many other investors and employees.”

A review of hundreds of pages of court records offers a window into how the once high-flying green company fell amid illegal dealings and multiple federal criminal investigations.

A company’s rise and fall

Founded by Joseph Sanberg and Andrei Cherny, Aspiration Partners reportedly raised $110 million from venture capital funds in just its first few years of existence.

It came at a moment of rising concern about climate change, and Aspiration seemed to capitalize. Sizable deals rolled in, including a $315-million pact with Oaktree Capital Management and Ballmer.

The firm even partnered with rapper Drake in 2021, using its reforestation program to offset the artist’s estimated climate impact. The company at the time claimed its business partners and customers had funded the planting of 15 million trees over the course of a year.

In September 2021, the Clippers announced a deal with the company as the first “Founding Partner” for its state-of-the-art arena in Inglewood. The idea was fans would be able to offset their carbon impact when buying a ticket to watch the team. Aspiration even bid unsuccessfully for the naming rights to the venue, now known as Intuit Dome.

The partnership, the news release announcing it declared, “set a new standard for social responsibility in sports.”

But behind the cadre of celebrity sponsors and investors, court documents reveal trouble was brewing inside Aspiration.

In 2020, the company explored a potential $55-million loan from an investor fund in exchange for 10.3 million shares of stock, according to federal court filings. But the investor fund wanted a “put option” — a sort of safety net guaranteeing it would be able to sell its stock if Aspiration defaulted on the loan, according to federal complaints.

Sanberg, according to federal prosecutors, turned to Ibrahim Ameen AlHusseini, a venture capitalist and then-board member of Aspiration Partners.

According to a federal criminal complaint, Sanberg was aware AlHusseini didn’t have the funds to cover the “put option.” So he allegedly coordinated with AlHusseini to falsify financial records and inflate AlHusseini’s worth by tens of millions of dollars.

Federal prosecutors allege AlHusseini sent Sanberg a spreadsheet showing his investment portfolio from several years back and told Sanberg the spreadsheet was not accurate but a “hypothetical.”

Sanberg, according to the federal complaint filed against him, revised the spreadsheet to read as if it were from Dec. 31, 2019, and sent it to an investment advisor.

AlHusseini also used a graphic designer from Lebanon to falsify financial documents at least 24 times between April 2020 and February 2023, according to the federal complaint filed against Sanberg. The records sent to the financial advisor made it appear that AlHusseini’s investments and assets were worth more than $200 million, the records show.

But in reality, federal prosecutors allege his Bank of America account balance in September 2021 was $11,556.89. His Fidelity investment accounts, according to court records from federal prosecutors, totaled $2,963.63 at the time.

According to a federal complaint, Sanberg then refinanced the loaned $55 million, securing $145 million from another investment firm, again using a “put option” from AlHusseini. This time, AlHusseini promised to buy the shares for $65 million from that firm if Sanberg defaulted, according to the federal complaint.

AlHusseini did not have the funds to back that deal, federal prosecutors alleged in court papers. But he still banked $6.3 million for his role in securing it, the complaint alleged.

There were other signs the company was in trouble.

Federal prosecutors allege Sanberg moved money from his personal checking account between Aspiration and another one of his companies in March 2022, making it appear on paper as if new investments were coming in.

On Nov. 2, 2022, Sanberg defaulted on the loan, and AlHusseini agreed the following month to boost the put option value to $75 million.

Some contractors began to complain that they were not being paid, according to court filings. Lawsuits followed.

In July 2022, Cherny also notified the company he would step down as chief executive. The day after he and the company signed a separation agreement in October, Sanberg threatened to sue him, according to a letter from Sanberg’s attorneys sent to Cherny.

Cherny would later file suit against Aspiration Partners, alleging the company didn’t pay him the entirety of his severance package agreed to in October 2022, according to a complaint filed in federal court. The suit was settled out of court earlier this year.

Federal prosecutors filed charges against AlHusseini in October 2024. He later agreed to plead guilty to one count of wire fraud, as well as to work with federal authorities in their investigation.

He is expected to appear in court for a sentencing hearing on Feb. 26, according to court filings.

Aspiration Partners filed for bankruptcy in March.

Sanberg originally entered a plea of not guilty to the charges, but in August he agreed to plead guilty to two felony counts of wire fraud, according to federal prosecutors.

Court filings show he is expected in court on Oct. 20 for a change of plea hearing.

An NBA star’s deal

Aspiration cut its deal with Leonard in 2022. Although players are allowed to have separate endorsement and other business deals, the NBA probe is trying to determine whether the Clippers participated in arranging the side deal beyond simply introducing Aspiration executives to Leonard.

The investigation follows information detailed in the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast, which reported that Leonard’s deal amounted to a no-work contract meant to circumvent the NBA’s salary cap rules.

The salary cap limits how much teams can spend on player payroll. It’s meant to ensure talent parity by preventing the league’s wealthiest teams from outspending smaller markets to acquire the best players.

Circumventing the cap by paying a player outside of his contract is strictly prohibited and can be severely punished.

Cherny, in a statement posted on X, disputed that the agreement with Leonard required no work from the basketball star.

“The contract contained three pages of extensive obligations that Leonard had to perform,” Cherny wrote in the Sept. 12 post. “And the contract clearly said that if Leonard did not meet those obligations, Aspiration could terminate the contract.”

In the statement, Cherny said he does not remember any conversations about the NBA’s salary cap when the contract between Leonard and Aspiration was signed.

“There were numerous internal conversations about the various things Aspiration was planning to do with Leonard once the 2022-23 season began, including emails from the marketing team about their plans,” he said.

Cherny declined to be interviewed for this article.

It was Aspiration’s collapse that shed light on the Leonard deal. According to bankruptcy filings, Leonard’s private company, KL2 Aspire, is listed as one of the company’s biggest creditors — being owed $7 million.

The Clippers are, by far, the biggest creditor listed for the company, with more than $30 million in outstanding debt.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Clippers said the team terminated its relationship with Aspiration during the 2022-23 season, when the company defaulted on the agreement.

Ballmer has said he was duped by Aspiration, and insisted the Clippers followed all NBA rules. He also said he welcomed the investigation.

The Clippers signed Leonard to a four-year, $176-million contract in August 2021. In an interview with ESPN last month, Ballmer said that the sponsorship deal with Aspiration was completed in September 2021 and that the Clippers introduced Leonard to Aspiration two months later.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Clippers said both the team and Ballmer were unaware of Aspiration’s suspicious dealings.

“Neither the Clippers nor Mr. Ballmer was aware of any improper activity by Aspiration or its co-founder until after the government instituted its investigation,” the statement read. “The team and Mr. Ballmer stand ready to assist law enforcement in any way they can.”

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LACMA Art + Film Gala draws Blake Lively, Charli XCX, DiCaprio

The evening was cloudy, but the stars came out anyway, parading in front of Chris Burden’s “Urban Light” sculpture before heading into the controlled chaos of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s 13th Art + Film Gala. The event, co-chaired by Leonardo Di Caprio and LACMA trustee Eva Chow, was held in honor of artist Simone Leigh and filmmaker Baz Luhrmann.

It was also the museum’s most successful Art + Film Gala ever, said LACMA Chief Executive Michael Govan, who noted that it had raised $6.4 million.

“I think I know everyone in this room, because we are a family from around the world,” Govan said during his opening remarks as guests, including Kim Kardashian, Blake Lively, Laura Dern, Viola Davis, Andrew Garfield and Sarah Paulson, sat down to a dinner of makgeolli jeung-pyeon, japchae and grand cru galbi-jjim created by chef David Shim from Cote, the country’s only Michelin-starred Korean steakhouse.

A gray-haired man leans in next to a smiling woman.

LACMA’s Michael Govan with honoree Simone Leigh.

(Stefanie Keenan / Getty Images for LACMA)

Earlier in the evening, while cocktails and small bites were being passed around, Govan said it was rare to be able to honor an artist at the same time as the museum was staging a retrospective of the artist’s work, as was the case with Leigh, whose show features two decades of work in ceramic, bronze, video and installation in a co-presentation with the California African American Museum.

The musician capping the evening, Charli XCX, was chosen before she made Vice President Kamala Harris “brat.”

“The idea in the beginning was to put two different worlds together, and then you mix two constituencies, and people meet people they didn’t know before,” Govan said of the impetus for the event, which also attracts architects, designers and other creatives.

A woman in a long white gown pauses for photographers ag a gala.

Kim Kardashian at LACMA’s Art + Film Gala.

(Billy Farrell / BFA.com )

Govan introduced two young artist brothers, Kohshin and Delfin Finley, sons of Ron Finley, who is also known as the Gangsta Gardener.

“There’s no more creative family in Los Angeles than this amazing family,” Govan said, adding that Kohshin’s work was part of LACMA’s “Black American Portraits” exhibition a few years ago.

“This is a beautiful evening to celebrate art film and culture,” Kohshin Finley said. “It’s so rare to have other genres together in one room.”

Added Delfin: “Everybody tries to keep everything separate, but there are really so many commonalities.”

The darkened shape of the LACMA’s new Peter Zumthor-designed David Geffen Galleries could be seen rising in the background among the various party tents.

“This is not its moment,” said Govan. “It’s kind of finished but it’s not, plus we have Simone and Baz, and it’s about them.”

Despite being mentioned and thanked multiple times during the dinner, DiCaprio kept a low profile with a bodyguard who blocked unwanted conversations. The night was not about DiCaprio, one of his handlers said.

Gala co-chair Leonardo DiCaprio, left, with honoree Baz Luhrmann.

Gala co-chair Leonardo DiCaprio, left, with honoree Baz Luhrmann.

(Stefanie Keenan / Getty Images for LACMA)

The night was about Leigh and Luhrmann — the former introduced by Chow and author, lawyer and social justice activist Bryan Stevenson, and the latter by Anna Wintour.

“I accept this honor for all the Black women who are odd,” said Leigh, noting her past as an unusual, creative, curious person — a mother who found her way to art because it was the only thing she could imagine doing.

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