Money Stuff: The Podcast · Friday, September 11, 2026
The company Aspiration Partners, involved in a scandal with the Los Angeles Clippers, has a history of questionable financial dealings. Founder Joe Sandberg is now in prison, and the company itself faced scrutiny for its revenue-boosting tactics, including round-trip deals with Colombian celebrities for tree planting. Aspiration would book revenue from these deals, which were often resold at high markups, even though no actual money changed hands.
“And Joe Sandberg's other company would turn around and pay the same amount of money to these Colombian celebrities for like marketing deals. So no money would change hands. The Colombian celebrities would never pay or receive anything, but they just like sign their name on a piece of paper. And for that aspiration could book revenues, which got them in trouble.”
“And the company is crazy. And, like, before they all collapsed, like, I think in 2024, Aspiration was, like, gearing up for an IPO. And it was, like, a kind of vague tree-planting environment.”