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It’s déjà vu with Mark Walter right now.
More than a decade ago, Walter’s business empire—including his investment firm Guggenheim Partners—faced a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging his purchase of the Dodgers was partially paid for using life insurance policyholder funds, and that the use of those funds was not disclosed in regulatory filings. The 105-page lawsuit, filed in February 2014, also accused his companies of obscuring what are known as “affiliated investments,” or deals between companies under common ownership.
The suit was filed by two named plaintiffs who purchased life insurance policies through companies controlled by Walter. One claimed that the insurance company used money she paid into her policy to fund a $35 million loan that was connected to Guggenheim’s purchase of the Dodgers, and that when she requested a refund it was refused.
It was voluntarily dropped the day after it was filed, but not because Walter’s businesses were found to be clean. It was dismissed without prejudice, meaning the plaintiffs retained the right to refile the same claims. Tom Gober, the forensic accountant whose work helped underpin the case, says the outcome was beneficial for the plaintiffs.
“My clients seemed pleased, that’s all I can say,” he tells Front Office Sports.
Fast-forward to now. Walter’s companies are under parallel investigations by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over issues that mirror the allegations in the 2014 lawsuit. The investigations into two of Walter’s companies—Delaware Life and Clear Spring Life & Annuity—were revealed in a June regulatory filing that noted the businesses had received grand jury subpoenas. “The company is cooperating with the investigation,” the filing said.
Among the issues at hand are that a June 2025 disclosure from Delaware Life incorrectly reported that about $1.4 billion, or roughly 3% of its invested assets, were “affiliated investments.” This June, after an internal review prompted by the federal subpoenas, the company restated its filings to show the figure was actually more than $17 billion, or about 40%.
“I was hoping they would learn from our complaint back in 2014,” Gober says. “But when I read about this new criminal case, it seemed that they’d just doubled down and gotten better at hiding it.”
“Mark Walter Is Negotiating With Himself”
The discrepancy in the filings is significant because the investments involve companies connected to Walter’s broader investment operation, including his private equity firm’s private credit arm. University of Texas law professor Andrew Granato says the structure creates an inherent conflict because the parties on either side of an affiliated transaction are ultimately controlled by the same person.
“In theory, because the funding base of the life insurers is quite stable, it’s a great place to hold private-credit-style loans,” Granato tells FOS. “But there’s a problem. Because these are all internal transactions within the firm, there’s not really a market negotiation happening. Because the owner of the general partner—in this case, Guggenheim—has control over every single party within this. Mark Walter is negotiating with himself.”
The structure isn’t necessarily illegal, but disclosure of “affiliated investments” is required under federal and Delaware state law (where the companies are incorporated).
“What’s alarming about this is that it seems to have taken this criminal investigation to get the truth to be revealed about the affiliated transactions,” Granato says. “It hasn’t even been formally shown that the loans were super rigged, we don’t know that. But the fact is that they are backpedaling so furiously on the loans, and Walter has suddenly sold the Lakers.”
It’s not clear whether any policyholder funds were used as part of Walter’s purchase of the Lakers last year at a $10 billion valuation. But the parallels between what’s happening now and what was alleged in 2014 are hard to ignore.
Gober shared the 2014 complaint with the lead prosecutor for the SDNY criminal matter. “In my opinion, it puts Mark Walter and the other entities on notice that they knew they shouldn’t be doing this 12 years ago,” he tells FOS. “Yet here, the feds are alleging the same thing. I would have thought the state regulators would have addressed it back then.”
“There’s Fraud Here”
In addition to the Lakers, Walter is also in talks to sell his stake in Premier League soccer club Chelsea and has reportedly sought other deals. Puck reported that he initiated discussions with Charter Communications to let the cable giant out of its Lakers and Dodgers deals before their expiration for a “lump sum payout,” while the Financial Times reported he held talks with Apollo Global Management earlier this summer, before his deal to sell the Lakers, about a multibillion-dollar loan against his Lakers stake.
Meanwhile, in a new regulatory filing this week, Delaware Life said that Walter’s holding company, TWG Global, will purchase up to $6.5 billion of Delaware Life’s investments tied to its affiliates, with the insurer receiving up to $6.5 billion of non-affiliated investments in exchange.
The questions now include whether Walter can get out of this jam by raising funds and having his companies issue corrected disclosures, as well as how much trouble he might be in if investigators determine any restatements are more than an accounting error.
Granato previously told FOS that Delaware law provides for criminal penalties, including potential prison time, for an officer, director, or employee who knowingly makes false filings with the intent to deceive. But Walter’s problems are larger than just what the Delaware insurance regulator might look to do.
“This was an obviously huge number that intentionally was not disclosed,” says Melinda Roth, a professor of business, sports law, and corporate finance at Washington and Lee University. “There could be federal charges for sure. There’s more to uncover. There’s fraud here.”
