NBA commissioner Adam Silver says the league found “no red flags” when Mark Walter was vetted to take majority control of the Los Angeles Lakers, despite Walter later becoming the subject of a federal investigation.
Walter agreed to purchase majority control of the Lakers in June 2025 after previously holding a minority stake in the franchise. Earlier this summer, it was reported that Walter was under investigation over allegations that billions of dollars in policyholder funds from insurance companies he controls were used to purchase sports teams without proper disclosure, according to The Athletic.
Speaking following the NBA’s recent Board of Governors meeting, Silver defended the league’s approval process and said nothing concerning emerged during Walter’s vetting.
“We went through the full process we all do. We spoke to governmental agencies. We spoke to, in the case of Mark Walter, in the heavily regulated insurance industry,” Silver said. “We spoke to other leagues in which he has investments and we found no red flags. Again, even to this day, these are, call them allegations, there are issues that are now being looked into. But independent of Mark Walter choosing to sell his team right now, he was not being investigated by our league.”
Shortly after news of the federal investigation surfaced, Walter agreed to sell the Lakers to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger in a deal reportedly worth $12.5 billion.
Silver was also questioned by journalist Pablo Torre about the NBA’s broader process for evaluating potential owners, including whether wealthy investors could use ownership of major sports franchises to improve their public standing.
The commissioner said the league takes its vetting process “very seriously,” while acknowledging there could still be ways to strengthen it.
“A lot of what we do is intensive database searching,” Silver said. “We also take to as many people as we can find and who have knowledge about these people and we do interviews. But beyond that, I will say, we’re always reassessing to see if we can do more.”
Walter’s sports portfolio has also undergone another significant change. While he remains an owner of MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers, Clearlake Capital acquired his ownership interest in Premier League club Chelsea on Wednesday.
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