Today I must tell the tale of a high-flying financier who became the king of Los Angeles sports only for his empire to suddenly begin to crumble: insurance billionaire Mark Walter who briefly owned both baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers and basketball’s Los Angeles Lakers.
LA’s Sports King Suddenly Falls From Grace
Last fall, Walter was on top of the world as his Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series for the third time in the 2020s after winning the National League pennant five times under Walter’s ownership.
Sean Paul Kelley waxed romantic about the team and their incredible star Shohei Ohtani, as close to the second coming of Babe Ruth as the game is ever likely to see.
And in 2024, the business press was just as effusive about the man who owned the team, via Fortune:
When Mark Walter, founder of investment firm Guggenheim Partners, bought the bankrupt Los Angeles Dodgers in 2012, many thought he’d overpaid. The $2.1 billion was almost double what anyone had ever spent for a sports team, and he had to outbid billionaire hedge funder Steve Cohen to get it.
Few would quibble with the price now. That amount has since been eclipsed nine times in deals for sports franchises, including the $2.4 billion Cohen paid for the New York Mets in 2020, while the Dodgers have gone on to become Major League Baseball’s most perennially competitive team.
The Dodgers purchase was “a forerunner in financial engineering and institutional money being put into sports team ownership,” said Marc Ganis, co-founder of consulting firm Sportscorp.
Of the deals since completed at a higher price than the Dodgers, six were led by individuals with a background in finance as sports teams have become one of the hottest investments around.
The resulting surge in values — the Dodgers are now worth $6.3 billion, according to a valuation by Sportico — helped power Walter to a personal fortune of $12.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The 64-year-old’s sports portfolio includes stakes in the Premier League’s Chelsea football club, the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Sparks basketball teams, auto racing groups and the Women’s Professional Hockey League, which together total more than $3.7 billion, according to the index.
And the source of that fortune?
His biggest asset remains Guggenheim Partners, the $335 billion investment adviser that was a pioneer in raising permanent capital through insurance relationships. Walter founded the firm in 1999 along with partners including Peter Lawson-Johnston II, a descendent of mining magnate Meyer Guggenheim.
Walter, who is Guggenheim’s chief executive officer, also controls nine insurers with total adjusted capital of more than $4.7 billion at the end of 2023. His economic stake in them is worth roughly $900 million, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index.
But too much is never enough for these guys, is it?
Buying the Lakers Was One Franchise Over the Line
The Lakers are one of the sports’ great franchises, having won many championships and featured stars like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Karim Abdul Jabar, Jerry West, and Wilt Chamberlain.
But alas, every wax-winged Icarus flies too close to the sun, and our Mark was no exception, forced to sell the Lakers after finding himself with a sudden need for massive amounts of capital due to one of those danged old federal criminal investigations.
Fortunately, former Disney CEO Bob Iger and the lesser-known Kushner brother Joshua were there to help a friend out with a well-timed $12.5 billion.
The Wall Street Journal has the illuminating details:
With his business empire under scrutiny from federal investigators, Mark Walter was on the hunt for cash when, out of nowhere, he was about to be offered an enormous pile of money. The chief executive of Guggenheim Partners needed liquidity to keep his insurance companies afloat, people familiar with the matter said.
Joshua Kushner, the chief executive of Thrive Capital, was reaching out with a potentially gigantic offer. All he wanted to know was, would Walter be willing to sell the Los Angeles Lakers?
Over the following days, they ironed out one of the most sudden and shocking deals in sports. By Wednesday, Kushner and former Disney chief executive Bob Iger had agreed to buy a controlling stake in the storied franchise at a $12.5 billion valuation, the highest price ever paid for any sports team.
But the cost wasn’t the only reason the deal was so astonishing. Walter, who also counts the Los Angeles Dodgers in his sprawling portfolio, had only purchased the Lakers a year earlier when they were valued at a then-record $10 billion. And before his deal to sell the Lakers came together unusually fast, there was no indication that one of the most iconic brands in sports was up for sale.
…
All of this is unfolding against the backdrop of a looming threat to Walter’s empire. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating how billions in loans extended to companies tied to Walter or his conglomerate, TWG Global, wound up on the books of his insurance companies after passing through a third entity. In a previous statement, a TWG spokesperson said the company was “confident these matters will be resolved favorably.”
And wouldn’t ya know it, the trouble all started with a squealer. I have some suspicions about who that rat might have been, based on ye olde cui bono, but, well, let’s keep the story moving.
Things Got Sticky When Someone Snitched, and the FBI Seized Some Phones
The problems for Mark Walter’s sprawling sports and finance empire began with an internal whistleblower complaint.
The complaint questioned how Walter’s asset-management firm, Guggenheim Investments, booked revenue from dealings with insurance companies and had drawn interest from federal prosecutors by last year, people familiar with the matter said.
Within months, the investigation evolved to focus on investments in private credit, a lending business that has boomed on Wall Street in the past decade and a half and which supplied the financial firepower for Walter’s 2012 acquisition of the Los Angeles Dodgers alongside partners.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and the Securities and Exchange Commission are now examining how around $16 billion in loans extended to companies tied to Walter or his conglomerate, TWG Global, wound up on the books of insurance companies he owns after passing through a third entity, the people familiar with the matter said. The authorities are trying to determine whether the activity constituted fraud, one of the people said.
And then that nosy FBI had to get all up in a man’s business, per Bloomberg:
Federal agents seized the mobile phone and computer of Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter last September in a wide-ranging probe into the financial dealings of the billionaire’s businesses, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation carried out a search warrant aboard a private plane at a Chicago airport where Walter was traveling, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
…
The people familiar with the search didn’t say where the devices are currently or what information was being sought, but seizing the electronics from a high-profile business leader like Walter is a significant investigative step. Probes by prosecutors can end without charges being brought.The search warrant was one of several executed last September, according to other people with knowledge of the probe, who asked not to be identified discussing a confidential matter. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have been investigating potential financial improprieties at two of Walter’s insurance companies and at Guggenheim Partners, the financial firm Walter leads, Bloomberg News has reported.
…
The warrants formed part of an investigation scrutinizing Guggenheim’s $362 billion money management division and whether revenue information shared with outside parties was accurate, said the people with knowledge of the probe.An early focus of the inquiry was a deal TWG struck last year with Mubadala Capital, an arm of an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, according to people familiar with the matter. In April 2025 the companies announced Mubadala Capital would anchor a $10 billion syndicated investment in TWG.
Prosecutors were looking into whether Mubadala Capital had been misled about valuations, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential matters. It’s unclear whether prosecutors are still pursuing that line of inquiry.
A representative for Mubadala Capital declined to comment.
More recently, prosecutors have been homing in on two of Walter’s insurance companies, Delaware Life Insurance Co. and Clear Spring Life and Annuity Co. In February, the companies said, they received grand jury subpoenas asking about private credit investments that were more intertwined with other parts of Walter’s business than previously disclosed.
Oddly enough, a multi-billion dollar empire like Walter’s doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
Caught in the Private Credit Undertow?
All of this is happening in the context of larger troubles in the world of private credit, again per Bloomberg:
The investigation comes as regulators are starting to take more interest in the opaque world of private credit, which took off after the financial crisis of 2008-09 and has become a rival to banks in extending loans to businesses.
A big chunk of the money fueling that industry is coming from life insurers such as the ones Walter owns. Other big private-credit companies like Apollo Global Management and KKR have snapped up insurers to buttress their businesses. Regulators are wrestling with the arrangements, which have led to a surge in “affiliated” transactions where the private-asset firms are managing the investments for their insurance units.
For background on the undertow and rip currents pulling various private credit players under, I’d highly recommend checking out the work of Sean Paul Kelley at IanWelsh.net.
But the mention of Mubadala Capital on top of Hollywood legend Bob Iger and the Trump-adjacent Joshua Kushner forces me to jump on a hobby horse and bring one of my main characters into the story.
Of Course Ari Emanuel Fits Into This Story
I refer, of course, to the self-described “King of Hollywood” himself, Ari Emanuel.
Emanuel is, of course, in the thick of the Ellison family’s attempt to build a hasbara media empire in the US by adding Paramount, American TikTok, and WBD atop their Oracle database empire, and there have been many developments in that story during the two weeks I was on vacation, but for now, let’s look at Ari’s connections to today’s caper.
First off, Ari Emanuel’s primary corporate vehicle, currently called the WME Group, enjoys serious financial backing from Mubadala Capital, a sovereign wealth fund wholly owned by Abu Dhabi, part of the United Arab Emirates as mentioned above.
WME Group is best known for owning a majority stake in TKO — the infamous Trump-aligned company that owns the Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Wrestling Entertainment.
And the primary connection between WME/TKO and Ari Emanuel comes via private equity firm Silver Lake, whose main man, Egon Durban, recently became a part owner of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders and brought in his friends Ari Emanuel, fellow TKO exec Mark Shapiro, and computer billionaire Michael Dell as fellow owners.
But one bro that Durban hasn’t managed to bring onto the Raiders ownership team is Khaldoon Al Mubarak, CEO of Mubadala.
That’s not because Khaldoon doesn’t enjoy owning sports teams. Khaldoon’s got quite an impressive roster of what we provincial Americans call soccer clubs, including Manchester City, Melbourne City and City Football Group.
Anyhow, it just struck me as an interesting coincidence that “an early focus of the inquiry (into Mark Walter) was a deal TWG struck last year with Mubadala Capital.”
After all, Ari and Khaldoon are quite close, as another recent WSJ piece detailed:
Emanuel is a picky eater. Khaldoon Al Murbarak, head of Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala sovereign-wealth fund, who partnered with TKO on bringing the UFC to the United Arab Emirates, praised Emanuel for having “one of the sharpest minds in the industry” but is always a little wary when he invites his friend over to dinner.
“Some people will come to your house and say, `I don’t eat cheese or I’m lactose intolerant.’ Ari will send a two-page list of things he will or won’t eat,” Al Murbarak said.
And it’s more than just a matter of dining together now and then, in fact, in 2020 Khaldoon literally saved Emanuel’s empire.
Friends In Need, Friends Indeed
Here’s how The Wrap described Endeavor’s (now WME Group) fortunes at the time:
After years of leading the William Morris Endeavor talent agency with a brazen, no-holds-barred approach, Emanuel and Whitesell borrowed billions of dollars to acquire glitzy media assets, such as events behemoth IMG and the mixed-martial-arts league UFC in an attempt to diversify the company and test just how close to the sun Endeavor could fly.
Emanuel and Whitesell, along with other senior executives, held a combined interest in Endeavor worth at least $1.5 billion before executives pulled the plug on a planned IPO last September, Bloomberg wrote at the time. The duo was also poised to collect millions in salary and bonuses.
They’re now on the verge of crashing back to Earth. When Endeavor opened its books last year as part of its IPO, it revealed an astonishing $4.6 billion in long-term debt and overall liabilities totaling $7.2 billion. Months after spiking the IPO, Endeavor now faces the scrutiny from having the coronavirus pandemic spotlight shown brightly in its direction. The company is in such a precarious state that it has raised questions about its ability to survive.
“Endeavor will be bloody from head to toe,” said Eric Schiffer, CEO of The Patriarch Organization and chairman of Reputation Management Consultants.
On Monday, S&P Global downgraded Endeavor’s credit rating to CCC+, which represents substantial risk, down from a B rating. The credit agency also changed the company’s outlook to negative.
“The negative outlook on Endeavor reflects a high level of uncertainty surrounding event and entertainment-based revenue streams due to the spread of the coronavirus, resulting in significantly heightened financial risk over at least the next several quarters,” S&P Global analysts wrote in a report. “We believe the level of financial risk could motivate the company to seek a distressed debt restructuring if coronavirus containment does not occur by midyear so that revenue can begin to recover.”
Endeavor has been weighed down by a massive amount of debt incurred mainly from its $2.3 billion acquisition of media, sports and fashion giant IMG, and its stunning $4 billion acquisition of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. After that acquisition, Endeavor’s fortunes began to change, according to Ross Gerber, CEO of media investment firm Gerber Kawasaki.
In 2012, Endeavor, then called William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, sold a 31% minority stake to private equity film Silver Lake Partners for $200 million. That investment helped propel the company’s growth. In an attempt to diversify the business away from simply being a talent agency, collecting a steady but mostly unchanging percentage of its clients’ earnings, Endeavor unknowingly set itself up for its downfall.
The coronavirus pandemic has forced many businesses in and out of Hollywood to their knees — none perhaps more impacted than the live events industry, which Endeavor has spent billions to enter. Based on its September filing, Endeavor’s entertainment and sports segment, which includes live entertainment and revenue from televised and streamed entertainment rights, earned $2.3 billion in revenue in 2018, compared with the $1.3 billion in revenue from WME. (And that does not include revenue it hoped to generate this year from its 2019 acquisition of the NFL-tied events business On Location Experiences in a $650 million deal.)
And that’s when Khaldoon stepped in and saved his friend’s empire, per MMA Fighting:
Endeavor saw its bottom line crushed under the weight of COVID-19. With Hollywood essentially shut down, Endeavor, which owns sports operations like the UFC and Professional Bull Riders, lost almost all of the company’s ability to generate revenue. But the UFC served as a life raft after UFC President Dana White defiantly promised to return to action faster than any other major sport on the planet.
White delivered on his guarantee with live events returning one year ago, weeks ahead of other leagues like the NBA or the NHL. But the UFC couldn’t just stay in the United States, where restrictions surrounding the pandemic were constantly shifting and changing, not to mention there is a roster of fighters who were from international locations where travel into the U.S. wasn’t guaranteed.
According to Endeaver CEO Ari Emanuel, it was during this time that he received a call from his friend Khaldoon Al Mubarak, who is a partner in Abu Dhabi and an influential adviser to de facto leader of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed.
Emanuel and Al Mubarak had been close for many years as Endeavor took on major investors from Abu Dhabi. But as the company was hemorrhaging money during the pandemic, he pushed for a solution to get events back up and running to generate cash flow.
That’s when Al Mubarak gave Emanuel the idea to bring the UFC to Abu Dhabi for an extended stay.
“Khaldoon said, ‘Why don’t you have the UFC come here? We’ll create a bubble for you.’” Emanuel relayed in an interview with The New Yorker. “And then everything got started.”
That was the beginning of what eventually became Fight Island, a cordoned-off part of Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, filled with luxury hotels, a state-of-the-art arena, training facilities, restaurants and every other possible amenity to provide for the UFC that also cut down on any potential risk of a COVID-19 outbreak.
And that’s not the only coincidence in this tale.
Ari Has Experience Buying Distressed Sports Properties
Interestingly enough, although, I’m certain completely unrelate to the matters at hand, a recent shareholder lawsuit alleges that Ari Emanuel used early knowledge of potential legal difficulties facing then WWE owner Vince McMahon to get the inside track on acquiring the property.
It seems that McMahon was facing investigations both criminal and civil involving sex trafficking and sexual assault allegations by a former employee when he allegedly began secret negotiations with Ari Emanuel to buy the company.
The suit claimed McMahon steered WWE toward a deal with Endeavor over other potential suitors who would have perhaps paid more because he believed Ari Emanuel, then CEO of Endeavor, would allow him to maintain financial benefits and control over WWE. Other bidders could have forced McMahon out due to sexual misconduct and settlement payment scandals, according to the suit. Emanuel is now CEO and executive chairman of TKO.
From Zach Arnold at The MMA Draw, which I publish under my given name:
Ari Emanuel brutally worked over Vince McMahon to acquire his family empire.
When he was forced out of WWE, Vince McMahon engaged in a fire sale of TKO stock at a price tag of approximately $79/share at the time of this transaction. TKO stock is currently $203. On paper, Vince McMahon’s net worth theoretically could have been triple what it currently is.
That is one hell of a price to pay.
Ari Emanuel has made billions of dollars by taking advantage of and using two of his top clients, Vince McMahon and Donald Trump. You couldn’t make this script up.
Ari nearly lost his Endeavor empire during COVID, but got bailed out by Khaldoon Al-Mubarak and Ari’s two biggest client carnies.
Ari capitalized on Vince McMahon’s obsession with wanting to be accepted in Hollywood circles. Vince wanted to be a respected billionaire. Ari offered him a golden parachute to transfer WWE to Endeavor and do so on paper via a Reverse Morris Trust that would allow for the merger of WWE & UFC into TKO with minimal taxation.
As Judge Laster’s recent Delaware opinion revealed, Vince McMahon was under the belief that Ari Emanuel was going to provide him with legal protection via indemnification thanks to Ari’s friends at Big Law firm Latham & Watkins. Ari left a voice message to Vince McMahon assuring him that Latham & Watkins had allies in the Biden DOJ that would ensure that everything would proceed smoothly during the Fed’s criminal investigation into McMahon.
If it looks too good to be true, it damn well is too good to be true.
Vince McMahon lost his position at TKO and potentially lost hundreds of millions of dollars because he sold his stock at a Rock Bottom price.
Of course, the WWE sale has nothing whatsoever to do with the sudden sale of the Los Angeles Lakers, but there is a certain stench the two share in common.
It’s a very small club after all, and all these bros are in it, although it appears that Mark Walter might not be quite as in as he used to be and maybe he’s never enjoyed the privilege of receiving one of Ari Emanuel’s two-page lists of things he won’t eat.
In retrospect that might have been a clue that Walter wasn’t really making it in the inner circles of Hollywood.
But for those who are truly in with Ari Emanuel, this is certainly a good time to have a good friend you can call on in a crisis.
After all, the wealthy rulers of Abu Dhabi urgently need to diversify their portfolios, what with Trump’s disastrous war on Iran having blown up in their faces and whatnot.
But I digress. For now, it’s just a tale of a man who owned one too many famous franchises in a small town where perhaps he wasn’t as well liked as he thought, and perhaps he had a smaller margin of error when messing with the sovereign wealth of a deeply distressed petrostate than he thought he did.
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