Attorneys for Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer have filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought against him by former Aspiration investors, ESPN reported on Friday.
The network acquired the court documents, which contend that allegations of fraud pertaining to funneling money to star player Kawhi Leonard through the named company are “sensational” and “patently false.”
Ballmer had been added to the lawsuit in November, following reports of wrongdoing produced by journalist Pablo Torre. In his podcast, Torre provided documents signed by Leonard, the six-time NBA All-Star who was to receive $28 million in cash from Aspiration over the course of four years between 2022 and 2025, as long as he was playing for the Clippers.
Aspiration was rebranded as “Catona Climate Solutions” following a bankruptcy. Company co-founder Joseph Sanberg has also been named in the suit.
“Plaintiffs would not have invested and/or kept their investment in Catona if Ballmer and Sanberg had disclosed the true nature of Ballmer’s investment,” per the revised lawsuit. “Absent Ballmer’s support, Catona could not have sustained the frauds set forth herein.”
The initial suit was filed in July, per reporting from Front Office Sports.
Eleven former investors of the company, then called Aspiration Partners, contend Ballmer used the business to bypass the league salary cap by channeling millions earmarked for Leonard through Aspiration’s bank accounts.
As a result, Ballmer and Aspiration founders committed fraud and aided and abetted in a fraud that negatively impacted the investors, the plaintiffs allege.
Ballmer has contended that he was defrauded by Sanberg, the same as other investors.
His lawyers credited the move to add Ballmer to the lawsuit to the investors’ “zeal to recover assets swindled by Sanberg from anybody with the means to pay. … There are no facts demonstrating an agreement between Ballmer and Sanberg to engage in salary cap circumvention.”
The current NBA collective bargaining agreement allows for a fine of up to $4.5 million for a first offense of circumventing the salary cap, the forfeiture of one first-round draft pick and/or the voiding of any contracts or transactions that violated league rules.
Leonard originally signed with the Clippers in 2019 before agreeing to a three-year contract extension worth around $150 million in early 2024.
The 34-year-old won the NBA Finals MVP award both times he earned NBA championship titles (2014 with the San Antonio Spurs, 2019 with the Toronto Raptors). He also has two NBA Defensive Player of the Year awards and is a six-time All-Star.
In 30 games this season, he is averaging a career-best 28.2 points to go along with 6.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.2 steals per game, but the Clippers are just 17-23 and 11th in the Western Conference.
