Berliner Tageblatt - Walter made improper deal with Magic after buying Dodgers: report

In an episode of "Pablo Torre Finds Out", the journalist who last year helped unveil wrongdoing by the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers claimed Walter made hidden arrangements in his $350 million sale of life insurance firm EquiTrust to Johnson, a deal that made Johnson a billionaire.

Sources cited by Torre said the 2015 transaction was repayment by Walter to Johnson for the retired Los Angeles Lakers star using his influence and high profile to help Walter's group win a 2012 bid to buy the Dodgers, who have won the World Series the past two years.

Walter is reportedly the subject of an FBI investigation that some of his firms made unreported affiliated investments, which could put Walter at risk of tax fraud.

Last month, Walter sold the Los Angeles Lakers NBA club for $12.5 billion to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner barely a year after purchasing it from the Buss family for $10 billion.

Walter, through his company TWG Global, said last month that the Dodgers purchase complied with all Major League Baseball rules and regulations and an outside law firm conducted an investigation that found no irregularities in the deal.

Walter's other sports holdings include a share of a holding company that controls English Premier League club Chelsea, France's Strasbourg football team, the Cadillac Formula One team, a professional women's ice hockey league and the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's NBA.

Torre outlined his report in an appearance on the MSNOW television show "Money Power Politics" on Friday, calling Walter a "one-man stimulus for billionaires owning sports teams" and saying, "Magic Johnson is one of the key figures in this."

"He was sold one of these insurance companies by Mark Walter, his business partner. It made him a billionaire in the process," Torre said.

"They got to together buy and fund the Dodgers using, effectively, law of transitive property via what it means to borrow money, the nest eggs of the parents and grandparents of America who did not realize that this was happening.

- 'Tell us the truth' -

"This would be OK if disclosed as a related party transaction... Turns out if America is a land where the rule of law matters, you got to report this. Disclose and tell us the truth because it's not just your money, it turns out he's borrowing against ours."

A year ago, Torre claimed the NBA Clippers and owner Steve Ballmer had improperly avoided league salary cap rules in paying star Kawhi Leonard through business deals with companies that had contracts with the team.

On Wednesday, after an independent investigation and nearly a year after the first report, the NBA pounded the Clippers with some of the harshest punishments in league history, fining the team $30 million and stripping it of five future first-round NBA Draft choices.

The NBA suspended Ballmer from all league and team activities for a year. In a statement, the Clippers vowed to fight the penalties, a challenge that likely means lawsuits against the NBA.

M.Odermatt--BTB