Documents show that Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and other executives funneled $118 million to a now-bankrupt company called Aspiration.
These payments, made between 2021 and 2023, were for investments and carbon credits.
The NBA has hired a New York-based law firm to lead an inquiry into whether the Clippers circumvented the salary cap.
The Clippers stated Ballmer was ‘duped’ on the investment and that the carbon credit purchases were part of a sustainability effort for the team’s new arena.
The Los Angeles Clippers said owner Steve Ballmer was “duped” in light of new reporting showing the team and its executives funneled a total of $118 million to a now-bankrupt ‘green’ financial services company called Aspiration that is the focus of the NBA’s investigation around Kawhi Leonard’s alleged “no-show” endorsement deal.
In an episode of his “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast that published Thursday, Sept.18, investigative sports reporter Pablo Torre published previously unreported documents that showed the paper trail of the money being wired. The payments spanned from September 2021 through March 2023 and came in the form of investments and payments for carbon credits.
The purchase of carbon credits was actually something Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban brought up in a social media post on Friday, Sept, 12, when referencing the NBA investigation that the Clippers circumvented the salary cap through the alleged “no-show” endorsement deal with Leonard.
Essentially, because carbon offset purchases would infuse cash into the company at a very high margin, the appearance of a business expense would shield any potential impropriety the Clippers would be conducting.
“I bring this up because it would have been a lot easier and a lot safer, if he was trying to circumvent the CBA to just buy more carbon credits,” Cuban wrote in the post.
Torre published a document from Tuesday, June 14, 2022, with Clippers letterhead at the top. That document is confirmation of a payment made to Aspiration for $20.96 million ‘used to fund … carbon projects.’ The document is signed by the chief financial officer of the Clippers.
Torre asked a former senior executive in Aspiration’s finance department, who was interviewed using a voice modifier, about the payments in carbon offsets.
“Literally (Cuban) described one of the few ways that the Clippers and Ballmer got money into Aspiration,” the person said. “He literally described exactly what they did. So I think he’s completely correct that that would be one of the avenues to circumvent the cap.”
The NBA has contracted the New York-based law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz – which it has used in the past for other investigations – to lead the inquiry into the Clippers and Leonard.
“Steve and his family are focused on sustainability, which is why Intuit Dome was designed to be a carbon neutral building from its inception and to achieve LEED Zero status over time,” the Clippers said in a Thursday, Sept. 18 statement responding to the carbon offset purchases.
The team went on to say that its “development agreements for the arena included mandates to buy carbon credits,” but that the Clippers “went far beyond those requirements” and sought to buy carbon offsets from Aspiration.
“Some of those commitments were built into the sponsorship deal with Aspiration — totally separate of the investment in the company — and we made payments to Aspiration until the company was unable to fulfill their responsibilities,” the statement continues.
“This effort reflects Steve wanting to set a positive example and raise awareness of the growing and important role of voluntary carbon markets. Unfortunately, he was duped on the investment and on some parts of this agreement, as were many other investors and employees.”