Andrei Cherny, who co-founded Aspiration and served as its CEO until 2022, has provided his perspective on the nature of the company’s relationship with Clippers star Kawhi Leonard. In a Twitter post relaying comments he made to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic, Cherny claims Leonard’s responsibilities with Aspiration have been incorrectly portrayed.
“The claim that the contract with Kawhi Leonard was a ‘no show’ contract is false,” Cherny wrote. “The contract contained three pages of extensive obligations that Leonard had to perform. And the contract clearly said that if Leonard did not meet those obligations, Aspiration could terminate the contract.
“The ‘beliefs’ provision is not unusual in celebrity endorsements and merely means we can’t do something like make a vegetarian eat meat as a way of forcing them to break the contract. It doesn’t mean you can have a ‘belief’ of not talking to the camera.”
Aspiration, a now-bankrupt “green bank” company, has been at the center of controversy since Pablo Torre’s September 3 report that Leonard had a $28MM endorsement deal, but didn’t perform any work to earn the money. The Clippers are accused of trying to circumvent the salary cap by using one of their sponsors to funnel extra cash to Leonard and his representatives.
The NBA recently hired a law firm to conduct a thorough investigation of the case. At a news conference this week, commissioner Adam Silver said the burden of proof will be on the league to prove that something improper was done before any disciplinary action can be taken.
“In the months of discussion among our executives before signing the sponsorship, I don’t remember conversations about the NBA salary cap,” Cherny continues. “I signed the contract shortly before I submitted my resignation, but before I left there were numerous internal conversations about the various things Aspiration was planning to do with Leonard once the 2022-23 season began, including emails from the marketing team about their plans in just the week before my last day. I can’t speak to what was done or not done after I left — or why.”
Cherny blames the company’s failure on fellow co-founder Joe Sanberg, who was arrested in March on charges of defrauding investors of $145MM. He claims Sanberg’s actions were the reason he decided to leave in 2022.
In response to Cherny’s statement, Torre received a letter from three former top Aspiration executives, who claim the endorsement deal with Leonard “was presented to the company as a completed arrangement” and was executed by Cherney “despite significant objections from members of the senior management team.”
“The team expressed concerns at the time regarding the high cost of the agreement and its lack of alignment with Aspiration’s brand and business strategy,” the letter states. “While subsequent marketing efforts were undertaken, they were ultimately discontinued and should not be interpreted as support for the deal itself. In our judgment, the Leonard Deal was not in the company’s best interest. It was strategically difficult to justify then, and it remains so today.”
No reason not to believe everything he said. Why would he lie?
Can I interest you in the Brooklyn Bridge?
Can I interest you in a sarcasm detector?
Oooh it all makes sense now. That’s why he was paid 25 times as much as Leo DiCaprio. Definitely nothing to see here.
And the easy follow up question is if his contract requires him to do something for the money why wasn’t the deal terminated? They went years paying him with no videos, no photos, not even a tweet. Yet, as the company was collapsing he got his checks.
“We investigated this and we found ourselves innocent of all charges” – on a loop
Someone asked “why would he lie”….. um, to avoid prison? lol If he’s found guilty of intent to defraud investors he would go to prison like his former partner.. this is why he would lie. He stated if Kawhi didn’t do his obligations he would have “reason to terminate”… did he take that action since Kawhi clearly did not do any of his obligations? Can we see the contract that said this?
Pablo Torre had someone read some of the contract and it was worded in a way that said they could ask Kawhi to work but he could turn them down if it went against his beliefs. It sounded to me like the only condition was he had to be on the Clippers. People here told me to watch his YouTube episodes on it and I was not disappointed how in depth him and his guests go.
Oh I feel better now, the guy who got canned 8 days later says it was all above board….reaching………. This feels like a fish trying to squirm his way back into the sea. Poor return serve on Pablos part 2
Andrei was issued this e-mail from his scammer partner of 9 years, “Figure out how to get me the money tomorrow or I’ll be in default. It’s your turn to do what needs to be done. . . . But if you don’t get me the money tomorrow we are all f…ed. Get me the money. Your turn to figure it out like I have for so long. Wire it to the [Sanberg-entity] account. If you don’t then [the lender] will foreclose. This will give you a good taste of what I have to experience every day. I hate you and I hate this company and I don’t want to work anymore with you,” So Andrei knew the scam. Now, did Ballmer/Leonard work a scam on the scammers is the question?
Easy peasy. Just show some documentation of all the things he did that honored the three pages of obligations listed in the contract. Boom! Trouble all gone!
Ooops, I forgot, Andrei need to raise $100M, LOL. What a collection of clowns.
Yawn …….. NBA investigation.
soon we will ALL know.
Makes me wonder if Sam Antonio knew anything and that is why they didn’t fight to keep him.
Uncle Dennis made himself known back then as well.
When I read these comments I have to wonder, what are thinking. If Balmer or Leonard had done anything illegal, do you really think that the USPIS, FBI and US Attorney would have missed it? If Cherny had done anything illegal, he’d be in prison right now.
It is tech. It is hype and outrageous contracts. Marketing turns people into Gods. Look at Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. Nothing innovative, just hype.
Are you asking me if I believe they have eyes and ears in every nook and cranny across the country, never missing a single instance of wrongdoing? Or if I believe they’d be vigilant towards every single marketing deal signed by an NBA player? Uhh, no and no. You won’t find what you’re not looking for. It’s like asking if I believe the IRS catches every tax cheat.
There’s just wayyyy too much documented smoke here for there not to be a fire. I’m usually one to reserve judgment initially, but not in a case like this with a very slim chance this isn’t exactly what it looks to be.
But, hey, if you want a chance at striking it rich, find one of those prediction sites and bet on this being a nothingburger. The payout must be pretty damn good.
When you look at the known facts, it looks a little silly to say that Balmer was trying to skirt the CBA.
At first, it sounds like Money Laundering. But why would he invest $60 million to get Kawhi $28? Bit of an overpay.
2nd. The deal was for Kawhi to promote Aspiration. Aspiration paid the Clippers $300 million to become an Intuit Dome partner and advertiser. Are they really trying to cover up $28 million?
3rd. Balmer has $85 billion in investments. Is he really going to let something this small screw that up.
And finally. The guy who reached agreement left Aspiration shortly afterwards. He is a free man. The guy who was left to enforce it is now in jail. The fraudster probably didn’t care about the agreement.
Kawhi probably didn’t do anything to get paid. And probably didn’t get paid. But, I don’t think it was done to skirt the CBA.
I love these kinds of comments. He’s too smart/rich/happy/powerful to do something dumb, therefore he’s innocent.
Elon is too smart to destroy his awful accusation of Twitter, therefore it’s been going up in value, not way down.
Or, how about it is to much effort to do something so small.
It also discounts the ego aspect of things. When you’re as rich and powerful as Balmer is, who has probably gotten away with other things in his life, you think you’re untouchable. It’s simply learned behavior over a period of decades. It doesn’t have to be logical at all.
The deal would have eventually come. Why hide something so small; but so damaging?
Shea, that was my thought the other day. Some of these folks believe they’re above the law.
I’m not saying Balmer feels that way, but definitely some people do.
@Giants74
“But why would he invest $60 million to get Kawhi $28?”
The Clippers are Ballmer’s obsession and a main source of his fun, as his in-game reactions on camera show. When you’re as rich as he is, the $60 mil doesn’t matter.
IMO he figured that this payment through Aspiration would be enough for him to blame them if the story came out (which is what he’s done).
According to bank records, Kawhi did get paid, although it’s not completely clear how much.
So since Kawhi took less than the max on his contract, why wouldn’t you think an endorsement contract of $28 million (when other celebrities were getting $2 million) wasn’t done to circumvent the cap?
Humm…The allegation is essentially money laundering. The point of money laundering is to hide money. Kawhi’s deal with Aspiration was public. The Aspiration name would have been plastered all over Intuit Dome on a nightly basis and to the TV audience. People would ask what is Kawhi doing for them. And Balmer wasn’t even Aspiration’s biggest investor. I’m sure Oaktown would have been all up in Balmer’s face if this was actually going on.
@Giants74
The allegation is that the Clippers owners conspired with Aspiration to pay Kawhi for and endorsement requiring him to do nothing in order to circumvent the salary cap.
“Kawhi’s deal with Aspiration was public.”
That’s completely wrong, which is why the existence of the endorsement deal didn’t come out until the company failed, the list of creditors became public and Torre followed the (hidden) money.
So, the allegation is money laundering. Oaktree would have known about the deal. Why didn’t they say anything? Why haven’t they sued Balmer?
How would Oaktree have found out about an endorsement deal that wasn’t publicized?
What would they be able to sue Ballmer for, exactly?
They new all the deals that Aspiration entered into. Investor Fraud seems like a starting point. I’m sure the lawyers can come up with a few other things.
“Investor Fraud”?
Careful you don’t strain something with THAT stretch!
Kawhi Leonard contract with Aspiration:
Page 1) Kawhi must average at least 20ppg via layups, dunks, jumpshots, runners, and free-throws
Page 2) Kawhi must average at least 5 rebounds per game via any combination of:
offensive and defensive rebounds
Page 3) Kawhi must total at least 6 in the combination of:
assists, steals, and blocked shots
***contract terminated immediately if the conditions of ALL 3 of these pages not met
This looks like the unindicted co-founder trying to make the endorsement deal more palatable after the fact by claiming it actually wasn’t a no-show deal as Torre has repeatedly stated.
That doesn’t remove the stink, however. The only remaining question is whether the use of Aspiration to pay Kawhi can give the 2 Clippers owners enough wiggle room for Silver to do little or nothing as a consequence (which would have to include support from the other owners).
I would guess they see this as a pretty big deal as far as potentially turning off fans, and Silver will have to send a strong message that this won’t be tolerated, but not so strong that Ballmer fights back.
Cherny is not listed as an unindicted co-founder.
Weird.
It’s a fact that he co-founded the company with Joe Sanberg, and he hasn’t been indicted.
Where would an unindicted co-founder be “listed”?
Unindicted means they don’t have enough to convict.
Which, since he resigned before the fraud was exposed, is apparently the situation.
What does when he resigned have to do with it?
Enough. These 2 Obama attorneys and speechwriters, knew they were untouchable. They likely met their quarry through the Obama years and picked the stupidest. Hence Ballmer.
Ballmer had a need. And the clever and greedy lawyers they had answers and potential profits. Ballmer, the worst Microsoft CEO and an idiot, saw a championship.
I can’t spend enough time on the rest of the clown car crooks.
If you go to prison, you are not untouchable.
Trump was indicted for loans on real estate the banks appraised, why aren’t every officer and major shareholder of this fraud not under indictment? How many trees did these frauds plant? What about the unnamed fraudulent companies that helped deceive investors for tens of millions of $? Who owns the companies not owned by the convicted fraudster? Make it clear, go after everyone and seize all their assets.
What are you babbling about? They went after the two who perpetrated the fraud. Why go after anyone else?