California Democrat activist Joseph Sanberg, a multimillionaire who fashioned himself an anti-poverty crusader, was arrested Monday on suspicion that he conspired to defraud investors in his “green” finance company, Aspiration.
“Joseph Neal Sanberg, 45, of Orange, the co-founder and largest shareholder of the financial and sustainability services company Aspiration Partners, Inc., was arrested today on a federal criminal complaint alleging that he conspired to defraud two investor funds of at least $145 million,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph McNally said in a statement.
Aspiration Inc. was backed by actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. The “climate-friendly banking” platform courted users’ money with Democrat messaging, telling them that, unlike with traditional Wall Street firms, with Aspiration they could “do good” and “do well” because “clean rich is the new filthy rich.”
Sanberg reportedly mulled running for president last year, and his website bills him as a “leader nationwide and in California on economic and social justice.” His platform included “taxing the ultra wealthy” and “passing a Green New Deal.”
He was behind the successful initiative to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit in California — a move that expanded one of the most fraud-ridden programs in government to illegal immigrants. “Then-California Gov. Jerry Brown’s top adviser Nancy McFadden called Joe the ‘spark’ behind the state’s efforts to execute the new program,” his site says.
Sanberg, whose wealth came in a large part from an early investment in meal delivery company Blue Apron, led the charge to raise the minimum wage to $18 in California, pouring $10 million into a ballot initiative voters narrowly rejected in November.
Aspiration offered big companies the opportunity to purchase “carbon credit” indulgences to “offset” their emissions. Like Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, Aspiration invested heavily in marketing, including a deal with a sports stadium.
Sanberg’s arrest raises the specter that carbon-credit trading could amount to a scam similar to FTX’s. It also raises questions about the billions of dollars the Biden administration sent to “green” groups, such as $2 billion to a nonprofit connected to Stacy Abrams.
The criminal complaint against Sanberg focuses on the same $145 million deal for which Ibrahim AlHusseini, an Aspiration board member and investor, was previously arrested. AlHusseini was also on the board of anti-Israel group CodePink, and was cited by the environmentalist Sierra Club as proof that “reversing the climate crisis can be profitable.”
Investors agreed to give Sanberg a $145 million loan because it was collateralized with Aspiration stock, and because AlHusseini had agreed to buy that stock in the event of a default, using the money in the supposed investment account. Sanberg never paid back the loan, and AlHusseini refused to buy the Aspiration stock, suggesting that company insiders thought it wasn’t worth much.
On October 7, AlHusseini was arrested for allegedly doctoring financial statements, making it seem like he had $200 million in an investment account that actually had closer to $2,000. He was held in jail as a flight risk — he allegedly transferred $300 million to his native Saudi Arabia — before CodePink founder Jodie Evans put up her home as bail.
The FBI’s criminal complaint in the AlHusseini case said Sanberg wired some of the money directly to Saudi Arabia, and Monday’s statement from the Justice Department alleges that Sanberg knew all along that AlHusseini’s bank statements were fake.
“Sanberg obtained $145 million in loans secured by AlHusseini, who Sanberg knew did not have sufficient financial assets to cover those loans if Sanberg defaulted. Sanberg hid this fact from investors, then defaulted on the loans, which resulted in at least $145 million in losses,” the Justice Department said.
The apparently fake invoices emerged out of discovery in a lawsuit after the investors sued Sanberg and AlHusseini for not repaying the loan or buying back the collateral stock. The FBI provided a list comparing 24 allegedly fake bank statements to real ones. All 24 of the monthly statements AlHusseini provided had balances ending in 43 cents, suggesting it was a sloppy cut-and-paste job. The New York State court issued a $78 million judgement against AlHusseini, and also a $200 million judgement against Sanberg.
The Daily Wire reported that on January 21, charges against AlHusseini were dropped, even though the New York judge held him in contempt of court on January 10 for donating to Democrats instead of paying his debts. On January 8, a bench warrant was issued because he skipped a court hearing on his debt.
AlHusseini’s lawyer asked The Daily Wire to remove the original article about his client because because “our client’s record has been dismissed pursuant to court order and all records related thereto have been destroyed.”
But his lawyer’s statement was not true. In fact, Acting U.S. Attorney Joe McNally of the Central District of California had merely dropped a placeholder complaint against AlHusseini because he was snitching on his business partner, Sanberg, in return for a lighter sentence. AlHusseini was also re-charged on Monday.
“Our prosecutors and law enforcement partners have worked methodically to secure a guilty plea from one of the main offenders in this case and have now charged another member of the conspiracy,” McNally said in a statement. “We will continue to ensure that markets and businesses receive an honest and level playing field in which to operate.”
The complaint against AlHusseini was dismissed “to facilitate his cooperation in the prosecution of others, including Sanberg,” and AlHusseini “pleaded guilty today to an information charging him with wire fraud for falsifying documents and information to assist Sanberg. According to his plea agreement, signed on February 7, 2025, and unsealed today, AlHusseini personally received approximately $12.3 million in payments from the scheme. AlHusseini is scheduled for sentencing on September 29, 2025,” McNally said.
Aspiration sought to go public at a $2 billion valuation after taking $300 million from former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, and there are suggestions that it may have tried to falsely pump up its revenue to get the valuation — though that is not included in Monday’s actions.
Bloomberg reported last January that “the Justice Department and Commodity Futures Trading Commission are looking into whether Aspiration misled customers about the quality of carbon offsets it was selling.”
ProPublica reported in 2021 that Aspiration said it had “5 million passionate members” when it actually had half a million active customer accounts, and told customers that for a dollar, they’d plant a tree to help the climate, when it only cost a few cents to do so.
Another Bloomberg investigation in July suggested that Sanberg sought to inflate the company’s value through dubious deals as it prepared to go public. Millions of dollars in purported income from customers were traced to an LLC called Day 12 that was once registered to Sanberg. In another case, a nonprofit was purportedly going to pay Aspiration 10 times its annual revenue. Yet another deal appeared to have a Colombian model pay $50,000 a month to Aspiration, after which a company tied to Sanberg would pay her the same amount. The company’s auditor refused to work with it any longer, Bloomberg said.
Sanberg and Aspiration have not responded to requests from The Daily Wire. Nor has Andrei Cherny, who founded the company along with Sanberg and was pushed out in 2021. Cherny worked for Bill Clinton and Al Gore, ran the Arizona Democrat Party, and ran for Congress in 2024. He sued Aspiration in December, saying it had not paid him money he was owed, but dropped the suit a few weeks later.
McNally said “If convicted of the charge in the complaint, Sanberg would face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. AlHusseini faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. The FBI and the United States Postal Inspection Service are investigating the case.”
[#item_full_content]
[[{“value”:”
California Democrat activist Joseph Sanberg, a multimillionaire who fashioned himself an anti-poverty crusader, was arrested Monday on suspicion that he conspired to defraud investors in his “green” finance company, Aspiration.
“Joseph Neal Sanberg, 45, of Orange, the co-founder and largest shareholder of the financial and sustainability services company Aspiration Partners, Inc., was arrested today on a federal criminal complaint alleging that he conspired to defraud two investor funds of at least $145 million,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph McNally said in a statement.
Aspiration Inc. was backed by actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. The “climate-friendly banking” platform courted users’ money with Democrat messaging, telling them that, unlike with traditional Wall Street firms, with Aspiration they could “do good” and “do well” because “clean rich is the new filthy rich.”
Sanberg reportedly mulled running for president last year, and his website bills him as a “leader nationwide and in California on economic and social justice.” His platform included “taxing the ultra wealthy” and “passing a Green New Deal.”
He was behind the successful initiative to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit in California — a move that expanded one of the most fraud-ridden programs in government to illegal immigrants. “Then-California Gov. Jerry Brown’s top adviser Nancy McFadden called Joe the ‘spark’ behind the state’s efforts to execute the new program,” his site says.
Sanberg, whose wealth came in a large part from an early investment in meal delivery company Blue Apron, led the charge to raise the minimum wage to $18 in California, pouring $10 million into a ballot initiative voters narrowly rejected in November.
Aspiration offered big companies the opportunity to purchase “carbon credit” indulgences to “offset” their emissions. Like Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, Aspiration invested heavily in marketing, including a deal with a sports stadium.
Sanberg’s arrest raises the specter that carbon-credit trading could amount to a scam similar to FTX’s. It also raises questions about the billions of dollars the Biden administration sent to “green” groups, such as $2 billion to a nonprofit connected to Stacy Abrams.
The criminal complaint against Sanberg focuses on the same $145 million deal for which Ibrahim AlHusseini, an Aspiration board member and investor, was previously arrested. AlHusseini was also on the board of anti-Israel group CodePink, and was cited by the environmentalist Sierra Club as proof that “reversing the climate crisis can be profitable.”
Investors agreed to give Sanberg a $145 million loan because it was collateralized with Aspiration stock, and because AlHusseini had agreed to buy that stock in the event of a default, using the money in the supposed investment account. Sanberg never paid back the loan, and AlHusseini refused to buy the Aspiration stock, suggesting that company insiders thought it wasn’t worth much.
On October 7, AlHusseini was arrested for allegedly doctoring financial statements, making it seem like he had $200 million in an investment account that actually had closer to $2,000. He was held in jail as a flight risk — he allegedly transferred $300 million to his native Saudi Arabia — before CodePink founder Jodie Evans put up her home as bail.
The FBI’s criminal complaint in the AlHusseini case said Sanberg wired some of the money directly to Saudi Arabia, and Monday’s statement from the Justice Department alleges that Sanberg knew all along that AlHusseini’s bank statements were fake.
“Sanberg obtained $145 million in loans secured by AlHusseini, who Sanberg knew did not have sufficient financial assets to cover those loans if Sanberg defaulted. Sanberg hid this fact from investors, then defaulted on the loans, which resulted in at least $145 million in losses,” the Justice Department said.
The apparently fake invoices emerged out of discovery in a lawsuit after the investors sued Sanberg and AlHusseini for not repaying the loan or buying back the collateral stock. The FBI provided a list comparing 24 allegedly fake bank statements to real ones. All 24 of the monthly statements AlHusseini provided had balances ending in 43 cents, suggesting it was a sloppy cut-and-paste job. The New York State court issued a $78 million judgement against AlHusseini, and also a $200 million judgement against Sanberg.
The Daily Wire reported that on January 21, charges against AlHusseini were dropped, even though the New York judge held him in contempt of court on January 10 for donating to Democrats instead of paying his debts. On January 8, a bench warrant was issued because he skipped a court hearing on his debt.
AlHusseini’s lawyer asked The Daily Wire to remove the original article about his client because because “our client’s record has been dismissed pursuant to court order and all records related thereto have been destroyed.”
But his lawyer’s statement was not true. In fact, Acting U.S. Attorney Joe McNally of the Central District of California had merely dropped a placeholder complaint against AlHusseini because he was snitching on his business partner, Sanberg, in return for a lighter sentence. AlHusseini was also re-charged on Monday.
“Our prosecutors and law enforcement partners have worked methodically to secure a guilty plea from one of the main offenders in this case and have now charged another member of the conspiracy,” McNally said in a statement. “We will continue to ensure that markets and businesses receive an honest and level playing field in which to operate.”
The complaint against AlHusseini was dismissed “to facilitate his cooperation in the prosecution of others, including Sanberg,” and AlHusseini “pleaded guilty today to an information charging him with wire fraud for falsifying documents and information to assist Sanberg. According to his plea agreement, signed on February 7, 2025, and unsealed today, AlHusseini personally received approximately $12.3 million in payments from the scheme. AlHusseini is scheduled for sentencing on September 29, 2025,” McNally said.
Aspiration sought to go public at a $2 billion valuation after taking $300 million from former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, and there are suggestions that it may have tried to falsely pump up its revenue to get the valuation — though that is not included in Monday’s actions.
Bloomberg reported last January that “the Justice Department and Commodity Futures Trading Commission are looking into whether Aspiration misled customers about the quality of carbon offsets it was selling.”
ProPublica reported in 2021 that Aspiration said it had “5 million passionate members” when it actually had half a million active customer accounts, and told customers that for a dollar, they’d plant a tree to help the climate, when it only cost a few cents to do so.
Another Bloomberg investigation in July suggested that Sanberg sought to inflate the company’s value through dubious deals as it prepared to go public. Millions of dollars in purported income from customers were traced to an LLC called Day 12 that was once registered to Sanberg. In another case, a nonprofit was purportedly going to pay Aspiration 10 times its annual revenue. Yet another deal appeared to have a Colombian model pay $50,000 a month to Aspiration, after which a company tied to Sanberg would pay her the same amount. The company’s auditor refused to work with it any longer, Bloomberg said.
Sanberg and Aspiration have not responded to requests from The Daily Wire. Nor has Andrei Cherny, who founded the company along with Sanberg and was pushed out in 2021. Cherny worked for Bill Clinton and Al Gore, ran the Arizona Democrat Party, and ran for Congress in 2024. He sued Aspiration in December, saying it had not paid him money he was owed, but dropped the suit a few weeks later.
McNally said “If convicted of the charge in the complaint, Sanberg would face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. AlHusseini faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. The FBI and the United States Postal Inspection Service are investigating the case.”
“}]]
