UPDATE: Steve Ballmer sued by 11 Aspiration investors who allege salary-cap circumvention for Kawhi Leonard

Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has just been sued by 11 Aspiration investors who allege that Ballmer used the company — which is now called Catona — “to secretly funnel millions of dollars to star NBA player, Kawhi Leonard.”

According to the complaint: “These funds would be channeled through [Aspiration] to Leonard so that Ballmer could induce Leonard to re-sign with the Clippers by covertly paying him more than allowed by the NBA’s salary cap rules.”

The plaintiffs allege that “Ballmer was complicit in and aided and abetted [co-founder Joe] Sanberg’s fraud for his own self-serving purpose.”

They continue: “Absent Ballmer’s support, [Aspiration] could not have sustained the frauds set forth herein.”

“Plaintiffs,” the lawsuit says, “would not have invested and/or kept their investment in [Aspiration] if Ballmer and Sanberg had disclosed the true nature of Ballmer’s investment.”

Aspiration investor Skip Miller — who is also the plaintiffs’ Los Angeles-based counsel — said in a statement to PTFO:

“A lot of people have been hurt here. This lawsuit is being brought to recoup their losses. We look forward to our day in court where everything will be aired out and justice will be done.”

According to the 11 investors’ complaint:

“Plaintiffs allege that Ballmer transferred other funds to [Aspiration] to keep the company afloat and buy Sanberg’s support, cooperation and silence about the secret deal with Leonard. The full extent of Ballmer’s transfers of funds to [Aspiration] and Sanberg will be ascertained in discovery.”

And here’s a PDF of the full lawsuit: