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Reading: Kawhi Leonard, Steve Ballmer Accused Of Additional $20 Million Fraud After $28 Million Allegations
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Home > NBA News & Analysis > Los Angeles Clippers News & Analysis > Kawhi Leonard, Steve Ballmer Accused Of Additional $20 Million Fraud After $28 Million Allegations

Kawhi Leonard, Steve Ballmer Accused Of Additional $20 Million Fraud After $28 Million Allegations

Sports Investigator Pablo Torre confirms additional accusations against Kawhi Leonard and Steve Ballmer.

Chaitanya Dadhwal
Sep 5, 2025
4 Min Read
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Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Moments after Steve Ballmer gave his interview with ESPN’s NBA Insider Ramona Shelbourne, Pablo Torre, the sports investigator who accused Kawhi Leonard and Steve Ballmer’s Clippers of fraud, made additional claims about Kawhi Leonard’s dealings with Aspiration. 

“Hi. PTFO can now confirm that Aspiration gave Kawhi a secret $20M side-deal, as first reported by @BostonSportsBSJ. Combined with Kawhi’s secret $28M no-show endorsement deal: that’s $48M. PTFO previously reported that Steve Ballmer’s personal Aspiration investment was… $50M,” wrote Torre on X. 

So essentially, Torre is now accusing that $48 million out of Steve Ballmer’s $50 million investment in Aspiration was funneled to Leonard to circumvent the salary cap obligations. This came moments after Ballmer claimed that the Clippers have a proven timeline of events that shows that their hands are clean of any wrongdoing. 

But the interesting question here is, why would a company that intends to defraud its customers and investors, which it eventually did, return 96% of the funds it got from Ballmer to Leonard? Moreover, did the Clippers agree to take $330 million of Aspiration’s money in their sponsorship deal without having their operations vetted?

Torre later added to his post and claimed that his team at PTFO, which is the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast, is still investigating the matter and indicated his findings are not yet final. 

Additionally, Torre recorded an interview with Mark Cuban, the minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks, to discuss these accusations on Leonard, Ballmer, and the Clippers, which will be released soon. 

Cuban publicly defended Ballmer earlier and claimed that it did not make sense for the Clippers to take that risk. This also makes sense since Leonard was recovering from an ACL injury; therefore, the Clippers have no incentive to go beyond the permitted limits to take that risk on a player who may not play at the same level ever again. 

Yet, they gave him the supermax extension of four years, worth approximately $176 million, which matched the 35% limit allowed on such an extension. Even in 2024, when Leonard signed his next extension, he still took the maximum permissible money in his contract. Therefore, there was no incentive for the Clippers to circumvent the salary cap on a player who is suffering from a career-risking injury. 

In an eerie coincidence, just hours before Ballmer announced his interview on ESPN, Torre anticipated that Ballmer would be making an “appeal for public sympathy.”

The truth behind these allegations remains unknown as the NBA has launched an official investigation into the matter. If the Clippers can prove that these allegations have no basis, then Torre would likely face unwanted consequences like questioning of integrity, credibility, and a potential legal action. 

But if the Clippers are found guilty of wrongdoing, precedent on cases like this, like what happened with Joe Smith in the 1998-99 lockout, shows that they might face some serious consequences that put their near future in the NBA at risk. 

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TAGGED:Kawhi LeonardLos Angeles Clippers ArchiveSteve Ballmer
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ByChaitanya Dadhwal
Chaitanya Dadhwal is an NBA Analyst and Columnist at Fadeaway World from New Delhi, India. He fell in love with basketball in 2018 after seeing James Harden in his prime. He joined the sports journalism world in 2021, one year before finishing his law school in 2022. He attended Jindal Global Law School in Sonipat, India, where his favorite subject was also Sports Law.He transitioned from law to journalism after realizing his true passion for sports and basketball in particular. Even though his journalism is driven by his desire to understand both sides of an argument and give a neutral perspective, he openly admits he is biased towards the Houston Rockets and Arsenal. But that intersection of in-depth analysis and passion helps him simplify the fine print and complex language for his readers.His goal in life is to open his own sports management agency one day and represent athletes. He wants to ensure he can help bridge the gap in equal opportunity for athletes across various sports and different genders playing the same sport.
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