David Samson

You got a federal law enforcement officer who invested their entire Roth IRA, almost $400,000.

You got a couple that invested $300,000 roughly, their entire retirement fund.

A couple in their 70s who also invested their IRAs.

And notably, one of those victims, not co-owner of the Clippers, Dennis Wong,

a close friend of Steve Ballmer from Harvard, who bought $1.99 million worth of Aspiration stock nine days before Kawhi got paid $1.75 million to do nothing by Aspiration.

But such is the range of people who were affected.

And so the sentencing is tentatively postponed until June 1st at 10 a.m.

And I should point out also, the bigger picture here, as we zoom out near the end, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge, the federal investigation into Aspiration beyond the DOJ is not yet over.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency that the two whistleblowers filed that complaint to under penalty of perjury confidentially, they're still looking into Aspiration.

So let's talk about what happens when the DOJ's criminal investigation is wrapped up.

Whatever happens there,

Lou, whatever Joe who pleaded guilty ultimately received from the government, what does that suggest about the question that you had raised earlier, which is possible cooperation with the government, right?

Like whether or not that's about Steve Ballmer,

I'm curious, what can be concluded about whether that's still possible once his sentence has been delivered?

So the calculus, David, is, I think, kind of simple in this regard.

If you're the NBA, right, and you're looking at what happened to Terry Rozier, and the entire specter of what you don't know is sort of looming, what could the government do to embarrass us?

This feels like a book they wish would close when the sentencing, when the journey started by Lou Manzo,

and finished by other people at the Department of Justice is finally ostensibly complete.

And what we're learning here at the end here, what we're finding out is that whatever revenge Joe Sandberg could hypothetically exact using the information that he may or may not have on the biggest investor at Aspiration that he was in business with over the course of nine figures of transactions.

The question is, what is this administration doing?