Steve Ballmer blasts Aspiration co-founder Joe Sanberg's bid for leniency ahead of sentencing

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As many as a dozen letters — including one from the NBA — were submitted by the attorney for Aspiration Partners co-founder Joe Sanberg ahead of his sentencing Monday in an effort to persuade the judge to trim the 17 years prosecutors have requested for each of the two counts of fraud.Sanberg pleaded guilty in October to the federal charges of conspiring to bilk investors out of $248 million for portraying the now-defunct Aspiration as a “socially-conscious and sustainable banking services and investment products” firm.Another letter was also submitted, however, and it wasn’t intended to assist Sanberg.Clippers owner Steve Ballmer’s attorney David N.

Kelley of O’Melveny and Myers wrote that Ballmer was defrauded of a $60-million investment in Aspiration and that the harm to his reputation is “immeasurable.”The five-page Victim Impact Statement concludes: “Mr.Ballmer’s losses are not measured solely, or even primarily, on a balance sheet.

They are measured in the reputational damage that will take years to remediate, and in the chilling effect on future endeavors intended to do good at scale.“We ask the court to impose a sentence that accounts for those harms, promotes respect for the law, and deters those who would seek to appropriate the reputations of others to advance fraudulent aims.” Clippers The NBA is in the midst of a high-stakes investigation of the Clippers over allegations of violating the salary cap.Here is what it could mean to the team and its owner Steve Ballmer.The letter states that the Clippers lost out on a $300 million sponsorship agreement with Sanberg in exchange for the team to wear Aspiration jerseys patches.

Also lost was about $20 million the Clippers paid for carbon offset purchases and the $60 million Ballmer invested in the company.Ballmer, a former longtime CEO of Microsoft, accused Sanberg of targeting him for his well-k...