The co-founder of the now-bankrupt “environmentally conscious” digital bank Aspiration who gave Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard a $28 million endorsement as a way to allegedly circumvent the league’s salary cap faces sentencing Monday for conspiring to fleece investors out of $248 million.
Joe Sanberg, 46, of Orange, pleaded guilty in October 2025 in downtown Los Angeles to two federal counts of wire fraud.
Clippers owner Steve Ballmer posted on X last week that he was “duped” by Sanberg when he invested in Aspiration five years ago. Ballmer also posted a copy of a five-page letter his attorneys sent to U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson — who will sentence Sanberg — asking for a penalty that accounts for the damage the Clippers owner incurred to his reputation.
Prosecutors recommend a 17-year prison term for Sanberg, followed by three years of supervised release, while defense attorneys are asking for a lighter sentence.
Court filings show Sanberg participated in the NBA’s investigation into possible salary cap circumvention by the Clippers, a serious violation of league rules. Ballmer’s attorney questioned the value of whatever information Sanberg provided.
“Sanberg continues to exploit his fraud of Mr. Ballmer for his benefit, providing information to the NBA in return for a sentencing letter that the league submitted on his behalf,” David Kelley, the lawyer for Ballmer, wrote to the judge. “The reliability of Sanberg’s information is suspect given that he has pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges, and the government has made its own determination that he is not credible.”
Aspiration sold itself as a socially conscious online banking company, offering investments and focusing on the climate crisis. The Marina del Rey firm also generated and sold carbon credits meant to help offset greenhouse gas emissions.
According to court filings, Aspiration’s eco-friendly pitch attracted celebrity investors including Robert Downey Jr., Orlando Bloom, Leonardo DiCaprio and Ballmer, the former Microsoft chief executive, philanthropist and owner of the Clippers, before the banking company filed for bankruptcy in March 2025.
According to court documents, Sanberg devised a scheme in 2020 to use his role as a co-founder and board member of Aspiration as well as his shares of company stock to defraud lenders and investors.
Sanberg and fellow Aspiration board member Ibrahim AlHusseini promised shares of Sanberg’s stock to two lenders to obtain $145 million in loans, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The board members falsified bank and brokerage statements to inflate AlHusseini’s assets by tens of millions of dollars to secure the loans, the DOJ said.
AlHusseini, 52, of Venice, pleaded guilty in March 2025 to wire fraud for falsifying documents that aided in the scheme and is awaiting sentencing.
Ballmer, who invested $60 million in Aspiration, has denied he had knowledge of any wrongdoing by the company. The Clippers have also denied any wrongdoing in connection with the alleged Aspiration endorsement deal with Leonard, a two-time NBA champion and two-time Finals MVP.
An early investor in meal delivery service Blue Apron, Aspiration booked revenue from customers between March 2021 and November 2022, but Sanberg allegedly did not disclose that he was the source of the payments. As a result, Aspiration’s financial statements were inaccurate and reflected much higher revenue than the company in fact received, according to prosecutors.
Sanberg defrauded lenders and investors with fraudulent materials describing Aspiration’s financial condition, including a fabricated letter from Aspiration’s audit committee that falsely stated Aspiration had $250 million in available cash and equivalents at a time the company had less than $1 million in available cash, the DOJ says.
Sanberg used these fraudulent financial materials to obtain millions of dollars in additional loans and investments in Aspiration securities, officials said. As a result of the fraud scheme, the DOJ said, victims sustained more than $248 million in losses.
In 2018, it was reported that Sanberg was considering a run for president in 2020 on an “anti-poverty platform,” but ultimately decided against it.
“This so-called `anti-poverty’ activist has admitted to being nothing more than a self-serving fraudster, by seeking to enrich himself by defrauding lenders and investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars,” acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California said in a statement when Sanberg agreed to plead guilty. “I commend our law enforcement partners for their efforts in this case, and I urge the investing public to use caution and beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.”