Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has been sued by 11 former Aspiration investors for using the company to pay Kawhi Leonard and “circumvent the salary cap.”
The 133-page lawsuit, obtained by Front Office Sports, alleges there was an arrangement between Ballmer and Aspiration, now renamed Catona Climate, to “secretly funnel millions of dollars to star NBA player Kawhi Leonard.” Ballmer and the defendants, including Aspiration founder Joseph Sanberg, are accused of fraud and aiding and abetting fraud.
The suit was originally filed in Los Angeles back on July 9, two months before the journalist Pablo Torre first reported on Leonard’s $28 million “no-show job” with Aspiration. Ballmer was not named as a defendant in the initial lawsuit, but was added Monday in light of Torre’s reporting: “Ballmer’s scheme to pay Leonard through Catona to evade the NBA’s salary cap was only later revealed in 2025, by journalist Pablo Torre.” Torre was first to report the amended complaint Monday.
Ballmer, who has a net worth of more than $150 billion, invested $50 million in Catona. The suit states that his investment and endorsement was a motivating factor in the plaintiffs either choosing to invest or keeping their investments in Catona.
“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,” the complaint reads. “Absent Ballmer’s support, Catona could not have sustained the frauds set forth herein.”
The NBA launched an investigation into the Clippers and Aspiration that is still ongoing. When asked about it onstage in September at the FOS Tuned In summit, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league will “get to the bottom of it.”
“We will bring whatever resources we need to bear on this investigation. I don’t know anything more yet,” Silver said. “I believe in due process. I believe in fairness. And so we will be thorough, but we will begin with a presumption of innocence, not a presumption of guilt.”
The NBA and the Clippers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the last two weeks, the NBA has been hammered with two major gambling indictments after the arrests of three current and former NBA players and coaches, including Heat guard Terry Rozier and Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups.
