Last week, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league found “no red flags” during its vetting process of Mark Walter when he agreed to buy majority control of the Los Angeles Lakers in June 2025.
This week, Walter is “the subject of a class-action lawsuit alleging multiple insurance companies he owns hid an ongoing federal investigation from customers while funneling those customers’ money into Walter’s other companies,” according to a report from Matt Moret of The Athletic.
Included as defendants
in the fraud suit with Walter are the insurance firms Delaware Life Insurance Company, Clear Spring Life and Annuity, TWG Global Holdings and Guggenheim Partners. Moret reports the basis of the charges is allegations that these companies deceived policyholders about how the annuity packages were organized and discreetly distributed policyholders’ money into a fund boosting Walter’s business ventures.
According to Moret’s reporting, that fund played a part in Walter’s purchase of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2012 and the Lakers in 2025.
“The lawsuit, brought by 67-year-old Ira Rosner of Florida, further alleges the insurers concealed that information and the fact that they were already under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission for potential self-dealing,” Moret wrote.
“Despite receiving grand jury subpoenas from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in February, the lawsuit alleges, the insurers intentionally hid the ongoing investigation when it sold Rosner his policy in April. Rosner had until late May to withdraw his money without penalty, but the insurers did not disclose the investigation to him until June, he claims, essentially trapping him.”
The contrast between Silver clearing himself and the league of any wrongdoing last week regarding its probe into Walter’s 2025 purchase of the Lakers and Walter featuring in a class-action lawsuit this week for insurance fraud would be immensely funny if it wasn’t a summation of Silver’s general ineptitude — and consistent word salad public statements on relevant issues — as NBA commissioner.
Of course, he determined he’s innocent! He and the league audited their own processes and decided the man willing to buy the league’s most famous franchise for $10 billion is All Good!
Trust them, seriously; they performed an altruistic and impartial investigation. There was no way to uncover something like this during their rigorous vetting. How could they know? It’s just some bad luck that same man now sits center stage in a lawsuit alleging insurance fraud while already under federal investigation.
You can follow Jackson on Twitter at @jackfrank_jjf.
