cherny
Senator Adam Schiff, former Democratic Party Chair Andrei Cherny, and former Rep. Steve Israel.
A company founded and led by former chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party (ADP), Andrei Cherny, entered into a deal believed to be a shady means of circumventing the NBA salary cap.
The Los Angeles, California-based online “climate-friendly” banking company Cherny cofounded, Aspiration, signed LA Clippers player Kawhi Leonard to an alleged no-work sponsorship contract for $28 million in April 2022. Aspiration was partly funded by a $50 million investment in September 2021 from the owner of the Clippers, Steve Ballmer, at the same time Aspiration and the Clippers entered into a $300 million sponsorship agreement.
Cherny served as Aspiration’s CEO until October 2022, per his LinkedIn. He retained financial interests in the company as of last year, according to a federal financial disclosure.
Per an inside source to the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast, the contract between Leonard and Aspiration was established to circumvent Leonard’s NBA salary cap of $176.3 million for four years. Claims of this intent align with a clause within the deal initially revealed during the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast clarifying the deal’s termination should Leonard leave the Clippers or retire.
This story is WILD. There is a clause that says Kawhi Leonard only gets paid as long as he is still with the Clippers. Great work @pablofindsout. https://t.co/mUcRvn0YaI pic.twitter.com/k0dos0FpIP
— Kevin O'Connor (@KevinOConnor) September 3, 2025
The Clippers denied the allegations in a statement shared with The Athletic:
“Neither Mr. Ballmer nor the Clippers circumvented the salary-cap or engaged in any misconduct related to Aspiration. Any contrary assertion is provably false: The team ended its relationship with Aspiration years ago, during the 2022-23 season, when Aspiration defaulted on its obligations. Neither the Clippers nor Mr. Ballmer was aware of any improper activity by Aspiration or its co-founder until after the government instituted its investigation. The team and Mr. Ballmer stand ready to assist law enforcement in any way they can.”
The NBA says they are conducting their own investigation into the matter.
Cherny’s fellow cofounder of Aspiration, Joe Sanberg, was arrested in March on fraud charges and the company promptly filed for bankruptcy. A month later, Aspiration rebranded as GreenFi.
Last month, Sanberg pled guilty to defrauding investors and lenders of $248 million through its wholly owned subsidiary, Aspiration Sustainable Impact Services, which promised environmental sustainability services to individuals and corporations.
Cherny got an early boost as a rising political force for the left back in 2000 when he received a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship.
Cherny ran for Arizona’s 1st Congressional District seat last year and lost in the Democratic primary to Amish Shah. That unsuccessful congressional run doesn’t mark the end of his political ambitions.
Cherny is the executive director of “Project 2029,” an initiative organizing Democratic policymakers for the 2029 presidential election monikered after the Republican-led Project 2025 which aimed to influence policy for President Donald Trump’s administration.
Project 2029 is operating with the financial backing of Cherny’s nonprofit, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas.
The playbook proposes a slew of policies organized under four pillars: governance, economy, humanity, and justice.
Cherny’s Project 2029 playbook proposes the following.
Governance: overturning the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision allowing unlimited corporate spending in elections; softening voter ID laws, reducing voter roll purges, and further restricting gerrymandering; requiring automatic voter registration, mail-in voting, and federalizing Election Day as a holiday; abolishing the electoral college; end militarized interventionism; and increasing governmental authority and giving back land to Indigenous nations.
Economy: implementing a progressive tax on wealth; doubling the federal minimum wage; restoring and expanding global humanitarian aid; banning right-to-work laws and forcing unionization; banning personal data sales by technology companies; and expanding federal infrastructure into rural communities.
Humanity: enshrining abortion as a constitutional right; banning assault weapons; passing Medicare for All; paying reparations to Black individuals and communities; codifying anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+; mass legalizing of illegal immigrants; establishing universal childcare and paid family leave; forgiving all student debt and establishing tuition-free public colleges; expanding affordable housing programs, expanding tenant protections, restricting landlord ownership, and establishing rent control; and ending subsidies for fossil fuels, requiring emissions reductions, and increasing subsidies for clean energy.
Justice: ending presidential immunity; expanding antitrust enforcement and breaking up monopolies; imposing term limits on the Supreme Court; expanding the Supreme Court to 13 members; decriminalizing drugs; and abolishing private prisons, ending cash bail, reforming sentencing laws, and establishing more alternatives to incarceration.