Topline
Federal investigators are reportedly probing whether insurers controlled by Mark Walter used four companies to improperly funnel billions of dollars in loans to other firms linked to Walter, whose recent unexpected sale of the Los Angeles Lakers comes as his broader business empire faces mounting regulatory scrutiny.
Walter sold the legacy basketball franchise just over a year after acquiring it.
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Key Facts
Federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission are examining whether Walter or his businesses committed fraud by hiding financial ties while borrowing billions of dollars in loans from insurers he controls, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Companies owned by the same person can legally lend money to one another, allowing an owner like Walter to use his insurers’ funds to finance his other businesses, but those loans must be disclosed so regulators can understand how much of an insurer’s money is tied to the owner’s other companies and whether that could threaten their ability to pay customers.
The investigation reportedly focuses on four companies that acted as intermediaries for loans issued by Walter’s insurance firms.
Those intermediaries—which are not controlled by Walter—are ABS Capital, Amistad Financial, Bradford Allen and Hudson Trading, according to the Journal.
Delaware Life Insurance Company—a Walter-controlled insurer—disclosed in March that it and its affiliate, Clear Spring Life And Annuity, received grand jury subpoenas in February after an internal review found some investments involving related companies had not been properly reported.
Walter’s private holding company, TWG Global, has explored deals with investors in recent weeks to raise money to address the loans facing federal scrutiny, and Walter has offered his Guggenheim Partners stake as collateral to secure additional funding, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
news peg
Walter sold the Lakers last week in a deal valuing the franchise at $12.5 billion —$2.5 billion more than when he bought the team in June 2025, potentially giving Walter more funds as his businesses restructure the scrutinized loans.
did mark walter sell the lakers to benefit trump’s family?
Walter’s deal to sell the Lakers just a year after acquiring the franchise prompted conspiracy theories the Trump administration’s investigation might have played a role in benefiting Josh Kushner, brother of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, after Josh Kushner bought the team with former Disney CEO Bob Iger. The $12.5 billion deal came just after a highly controversial deal for Kushner’s Thrive Capital to buy a portion of the FIFA World Cup collapsed weeks earlier. Joe Pompliano, a sports business analyst, wrote on X that it “seems weird that a guy who owns multiple sports teams and was in the middle of rebuilding the Lakers’ entire business operation would sell the team for a 20% gain in 2 years at the same time he is being investigated for fraud.” An unnamed White House spokesperson told Front Office Sports the Lakers sale “has nothing to do with President Trump or his administration.” Kushner is a Democrat and has donated to liberal causes.
forbes valuation
Walter, who co-founded the investment firm Guggenheim Partners in the 1990s, has a net worth estimated at $7.3 billion as of Monday. Kushner, whose venture capital firm Thrive Capital was an early investor in Instagram, Spotify, Stripe and OpenAI, has a fortune estimated at $5.2 billion. He is the younger brother of Jared Kushner, founder of the private equity firm Affinity Partners, whose net worth is estimated at $1 billion.
key background
Walter, whose TWG Global conglomerate owns the Los Angeles Dodgers, has been targeted by federal regulators multiple times over the last decade. His Guggenheim paid a $20 million fine in 2015 after the SEC found one of Walter’s workers had borrowed $50 million from disgraced financier Michael Milken. That employee then arranged for Milken to participate in deals at more favorable terms than Guggenheim’s insurance clients without disclosing possible conflicts of interest. Walter’s $85 million purchase of a Malibu, California, estate was briefly probed by the SEC in 2018, though Walter was never accused of misconduct. In 2019, the SEC examined a series of trades by Guggenheim-linked insurers over claims the firm sold bonds at higher prices than it would have seen on the market. The SEC did not bring charges in the probe.