Federal Investigators Look Into Secret Deals Between the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard

Federal prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into the Los Angeles Clippers, one of the NBA's professional basketball teams. They are looking into whether the team secretly helped star player Kawhi Leonard get extra money through sponsorship deals that broke the league's rules. The investigation is being run by the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn, New York. It is still in its early stages, which means investigators are just beginning to gather information.

The NBA has a salary cap, which is a limit on how much money a team can pay its players. This rule is meant to keep the league fair and competitive. When teams try to get around the salary cap, it gives them an unfair advantage over other teams. Prosecutors want to know if the Clippers broke federal law by helping Leonard earn money on the side in secret.

In July 2019, Kawhi Leonard signed a three-year contract with the Clippers worth more than $100 million. But according to investigators, Leonard's uncle, Dennis Robertson, pressured the team into setting up extra endorsement deals worth tens of millions of dollars more. These deals were never made public, and Leonard did no public work for the companies involved. The NBA's rules strictly forbid teams from arranging this kind of secret extra pay.

One deal that drew special attention was a $28 million agreement with a company called Aspiration Partners, a sustainability company that has since gone bankrupt. The Clippers and team owner Steve Ballmer also had separate business ties to Aspiration, which made the deal look even more suspicious to investigators. Prosecutors issued at least one subpoena, which is a legal order requiring someone to hand over documents or information.

The NBA hired a well-known law firm to investigate and found that the Clippers had broken salary cap rules by setting up secret income deals between Leonard and four different companies. Based on those findings, the NBA handed out some of the harshest punishments in its history, stripping the Clippers of five future draft picks. Losing those picks will make it very hard for the team to improve for years to come.

The Clippers were fined $30 million, and team owner Steve Ballmer was suspended from the league for one year. Kawhi Leonard was ordered to pay $700,000 back to the NBA, and two Clippers executives plus Leonard's uncle were also suspended. These punishments affected nearly everyone connected to the secret deals.

After the punishments were announced, Leonard said he accepted responsibility for poor judgment by people close to him. The Clippers, however, pushed back hard, calling the NBA's investigation biased and claiming the league had reached its conclusion before looking at the facts. The team is even considering suing the NBA to block the punishments.

The story first came to light when journalist Pablo Torre raised questions about the Clippers on his podcast in September 2025, which led the NBA to launch its own investigation. Now, with federal prosecutors involved, the situation has become far more serious than a league matter alone. Brooklyn prosecutors have a long history of tackling sports corruption, including a 2015 case that uncovered $150 million in bribes inside FIFA, the organization that runs global soccer.

The federal government's interest goes beyond the Justice Department. A company called Daktronics, which makes giant video screens for sports arenas, told its investors that the Securities and Exchange Commission had asked it for information about its deal with Leonard. The SEC is a government agency that makes sure business dealings are honest and legal. Daktronics said it is cooperating, and with two government agencies now involved, the pressure on the Clippers and Leonard continues to grow.