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Baxter Holmes
Attorneys representing Steve Ballmer are seeking to dismiss a lawsuit that alleges the LA Clippers owner participated in a fraud by funneling money to star Kawhi Leonard through a now-defunct green banking company, calling the allegations “sensational” and “patently false,” according to court documents.
The filing is in response to a lawsuit initially filed on July 9, 2025, by 11 investors in Aspiration, which filed for bankruptcy in March of that same year. The lawsuit alleged the investors were defrauded out of millions by Aspiration co-founder Joseph Sanberg and others at the company.
At the time, Ballmer was not named as a defendant.
But following a series of reports by journalist and podcast host Pablo Torre that said Ballmer’s investment in Aspiration was an effort to circumvent the NBA’s salary cap, the investors filed an amended complaint on Nov. 3, 2025, naming Ballmer as a defendant.
“Plaintiffs would not have invested and/or kept their investment in (Aspiration) if Ballmer and Sanberg had disclosed the true nature of Ballmer’s investment,” the Nov. 3 complaint reads. “Ballmer thus supported and participated in Sanberg’s fraud.”
Ballmer and the Clippers have denied they circumvented the salary cap to pay Leonard and have said they’re cooperating with the NBA’s investigation into the allegations.
“I understand that Mr. Ballmer and his attorneys deny our claims, but the facts speak for themselves and overwhelmingly support our case,” said Skip Miller, counsel for plaintiffs and a partner in Miller Barondess, LLP in Los Angeles. “They are laid out in detail in our lawsuit. I’m not going to repeat them here. We’re going to litigate this case in court and not the press.”
In September 2021, the Clippers and Aspiration announced a $300 million, 23-year sponsorship deal, which included signage on the Clippers’ new Inglewood, California, arena and a jersey patch component. That same month, Ballmer invested $50 million in Aspiration, the Athletic reported. Four months later, in April 2022, Aspiration signed a separate four-year, $28 million sponsorship deal with Leonard.
An unnamed employee who purportedly worked for Aspiration told Torre last year that the deal with Leonard “was to circumvent the salary cap.”
In Monday’s filing, Ballmer’s attorneys say that Ballmer’s name was added to the lawsuit “in (the investors’) zeal to recover assets swindled by Sanberg from anybody with the means to pay” and that “there are no facts demonstrating an agreement between Ballmer and Sanberg to engage in salary cap circumvention.”
They added later, “While conjecture and unsupported assumptions may be appropriate in the world of Torre’s podcast, they have no place in a sworn legal pleading.” Ballmer’s attorneys say that the allegations in the amended complaint “track almost verbatim the commentary in Torre’s podcast.”
“I didn’t write this lawsuit, so I can’t speak on behalf of the plaintiffs’ frustration with Kawhi Leonard’s secret arrangement to earn nearly $50 million off their investments for no work,” Torre said. “I stand by my reporting, which is supported by thousands of pages of internal documents and the many Aspiration employees who have alleged on my show that Steve Ballmer — and Clippers co-owner Dennis Wong — hid a cap-circumvention scheme. We continue to welcome a conversation with the Clippers, who have declined interview requests since last summer.”
In the filing, Ballmer’s attorneys say the Clippers owner was a victim of Sanberg’s fraud and lost his investment.
In October 2025, Sanberg formally pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud. Each count carries a maximum of 20 years in prison, and sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 23, 2026, at the United States District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles.
Ballmer’s attorneys have asked the court to determine that the investors failed to allege facts sufficient enough to state a legal claim. Ballmer’s lawyers also asked for the case to be dismissed. A hearing is scheduled for March 9, 2026, at Los Angeles County Superior Court in downtown Los Angeles.