LOS ANGELES -- A federal judge sentenced Aspiration co-founder Joseph Sanberg, whose now-bankrupt green banking company is at the center of an NBA investigation into the LA Clippers, to 14 years in federal prison Monday.
Sanberg previously pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud after prosecutors said he defrauded investors and lenders out of $248 million by fraudulently obtaining loans, falsifying bank and brokerage statements, and concealing that he was the source of some revenue booked by the company. Each count carried a maximum of 20 years in prison.
Federal prosecutors sought a prison sentence of 212 months -- nearly 18 years -- while Sanberg's lead attorney, Marc Mukasey, argued that a prison sentence would be "too severe."
Mukasey instead advocated for a punishment that would avoid any time behind bars for Sanberg, saying that Sanberg displayed "no malice, no ill will, no greed" in his actions and that he was not an outlaw but "a good person who did a bad thing."
Judge Stephen V. Wilson, who has been a federal judge since 1985, disagreed.
In a federal courtroom in downtown Los Angeles, in front of people who said they had been defrauded by Aspiration and specifically by Sanberg, Wilson said the circumstances of Sanberg's actions were "among the worst I've ever seen" in his career on the bench before adding that "this case has touched almost every badge of fraud."