Steve Ballmer, Los Angeles Clippers Invested $118 Million In Aspiration In 18-Month Period

According to Pablo Torre of Pablo Torre Finds Out, Steve Ballmer and the Los Angeles Clippers invested $118 million in Aspiration in an 18-month period.

Aspiration paid Clippers star Kawhi Leonard $48 million for a “no-show job” intended to circumvent the NBA salary cap.

The Clippers’ chief financial officer signed off on a $21 million payment from the team to fund various “carbon projects” for Aspiration in June 2022. The $21 million was enough for Leonard’s first quarterly payment as part of his “no-show” endorsement deal with Aspiration. It also hit Aspiration’s fundraising target.

Even before that $21 million investment was made, Torre uncovered documents that showed the Clippers made a $3 million prepayment for carbon credits on April 1, 2022, and made another prepayment of $32.4 million three days later on April 4.

Torre also noted that the April 4 date is the same day Leonard signed his KL2 Aspire contract worth $28 million.

In a statement to Torre, the Clippers once again denied any wrongdoing and explained the investments in carbon credits from Aspiration:

“Our development agreements for the arena included mandates to buy carbon credits, but after studying the issue of neutrality, we went far beyond those requirements, exploring ways to address emissions from our fans and contracting with Aspiration to directly purchase carbon offsets, as well as broker the acquisition of additional offsets. 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.

“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.”

Torre’s reporting also includes a screenshot of a February 2022 text message sent by Dennis Robertson, Leonard’s uncle and designated representative on his primary Aspiration contract, to Aspiration co-founder Joe Sanberg.

The text reads, “Good morning Joe, hope you had a wonderful weekend. Just a heads up things are still dragging. Mike has the cont[r]act for about 14 days now, haven’t heard back. Thanks Just keeping you informed.”

According to Torre, the text is referring to Leonard’s $20 million equity deal with Aspiration that was on top of his endorsement contract.