Pablo Torre Finds Out - RIFC, the Impossible Deal and Life After Aspiration: Kawhi-Gate, Part XII

Episode Date: July 30, 2026

Just when you thought the Kawhi Leonard scandal was almost over, Pablo peels off another branch of the saga, with stacks of new documents and a group of reporters in tow. Amin Elhassan and David Samson reunite to trust the process of local journalism, meet another benevolent entrepreneur... and follow the public money, straight to the top — and back to The House That Ballmer Built.• Support The Kyra Fund• Read much more about RIFC at WPRIPreviously on PTFO:• Part I: The Silent Superstar and the Rotten Apple Tree• Part II: An Argument with Mark Cuban• Part III: The Mystery Investor, the No-Show Payday and the "Smoking Gun"• Part IV: Steve Ballmer, the Other Cuban and the $118 Million Infusion• Part V: Steve Ballmer's "Inconceivable" Donation, the $20 Million Guarantee and a Head on a Spike• Part VI: An IRL Showdown with Mark Cuban• Part VII: The Briefcase, Ballmer's Social Network and Aspiration's House of Cards• Part VIII: Uncle Dennis, Ballmer's $50 Million Sprint and the Side Deal That Wouldn't Die• Part IX: Ballmer's Tree Money, the Whistle-Blowers and the Document You've Been Waiting For• Part X: Steve Ballmer's Victim Impact, the Man Who Prosecuted Aspiration and the Abacus of Incarceration• Part XI: Ballmer's Secret I.O.U., Aspiration's "Web of Lies" and the Zenith of Fraud(Pablo Torre Finds Out is independently produced by Meadowlark Media and distributed by The Athletic. The views, research and reporting expressed in this episode are solely those of Pablo Torre Finds Out and WPRI-TV and do not reflect the work or editorial input of The Athletic or its journalists.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Pablo Torre finds out. I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is. I've met with many of the investors, but Quy Lennon wasn't one of them, although he was on my fantasy basketball team this year. Right after this. A lot of pomp and circumstance today, huh? I know. It's just really important that you guys not know what's going on in here until you get in here.

Oh, like as opposed to how we usually know everything, right? Can the camera see David over the stacks of paper? Very good. I'm trying to do the math equation on the top page. Of course, you are. Stop looking at the papers. You have folders in front of you. There are stacks on the desk.

The whole thing of why I needed you guys both here in studio with me, which we have not done together, by the way, for about five months. No, that's not true. We were at Sloan together. Well, five months ago. That was five months? Oh, my God. Jesus.

Welcome to July, 26. and me and Al Hassan, former member of the Sun's front office, and David Samson, former president of the Marlins, and builder of Marlins Park. Yes. I didn't actually hammer one nail. I did sign a girder, though. You autographed a beam.

It's a roof beam. I just like that David autographed the thing that keeps the roof from caving in. One of the things. Among many of us. There's a lot of girders. We should talk about some of those girders, perhaps, as we proceed here. But it has been almost a year since we dropped part one of our investigation into Kauai Leonard and Steve Ballmer and The Clippers and aspiration.

And we really need to start by acknowledging something. That is more important than anything else. It is a good cause that we are proudly supporting here today as we scrutinize any number of allegedly good causes because this cause is the Kira Fund. Thank you. David, you started this in your daughter's memory after she passed away in late June at age 28, and we genuinely need everybody to support the cure of funds mission. There's going to be a link in the show notes of this episode,

and we're going to find a cure for glialostoma together. We're going to try. That's for sure. It's been thank you guys, I should say, to your whole staff, Medallark, Amin. I know you were there at the funeral. Thank you for that, obviously, and Pablo. Yeah, I think about our first show all the time, because that was right before Kira got sick.

It came out on September 3rd, and she got sick on the 12th. And that show was the last show I ever got to talk to her about. The show we won a Pulitzer for together was the last show of mine that I was in that Kira ever got to see. Right. Life is strange. It's surreal. As we attempt to manage what the real world is and what the studio is, and the ways that they touch each other

and bleed into each other. And I also need to acknowledge, Amin al-Hasson, thank you for clearing your calendar and leaving NBA Summer League and your beloved lobby bar at the win, Las Vegas, to join us here today.

Well, luckily, Summer League ended a day earlier, so I'm clear on that front. But yes, no, I wouldn't miss this for the long. How long were you in Vegas? Not that long. Long by regular people. Like, most people would go to Vegas. Three nights.

Yeah. No, it's a lot longer than that. Three nights. You go hard, one and three, and you have to rest two. Okay, so it's kind of like going to jail. You only do two days, right? The first day and the last day, it's the same thing for the Summer League. You just go, and then one day you're like, I'm leaving today.

As we gather here today, we are still waiting for the results of the ongoing NBA investigation. And the Kauai Leonard and the Clippers, this is the investigation that caused the Raptors. Of course, to hit pause on their blockbuster trade for Kauai on account of possible punishments being handed down by the commissioner Adam Silver, who himself, just recently, says that he remains concerned. The last thing you want is to sort of wrap up an investigation and then have other information come out.

Other information... That's us, guys. He's really... He's literally just talking about us. Other information coming out after his ruling drops, perhaps, in a studio like this one. Uh-huh. It brings us to another update recently

from our partners over at the athletic. I mean, Oh, I get to read early today. This headline reads NBA investigating second Kauai Leonard sponsorship deal as part of aspiration probe. Now, the athletic, David, did not identify

any further details about this alleged second sponsorship deal, but it did remind me, almost immediately, of another quote that we previously had reported months ago together. This was a quote from the Clippers exasperated general manager at the time. Michael Winger,

inside the team building. Quote, how many fucking side deals have we made with Kwai? I felt that quote was important at the time, even more so now. And the thing that I need you guys to know about what I've been doing here

is that since September 25th, 2025, in parallel to our aspiration reporting, I have been trying to answer the question Michael Winger posed. And I've been trying to answer, trying to answer it by following a couple of clues. These are clues that have gone ignored, I would say, despite sitting out there in public for

the last 11 months as we wait for anybody anywhere to produce an even remotely rational, non-salary cap-related reason why a company like aspiration would ever bend over backwards to wildly overpay the least marketable superstar in the NBA to do nothing and keep all of that secret as well, never even announcing that deal at all. But, David, for legal reasons, at the top here, I should also have you first read from the Clipper's latest statement, which got leaked to ESPN once the Kauai trade to the Raptors got frozen. This about the NBA's investigation by its white shoe law firm of choice. At the heart of this investigation are Joe Samburg and Aspiration. We did not funnel money to Kauai Leonard through aspiration.

Like many sophisticated investors, financial institutions, and business partners, we were victims of a fraud initiated by Sandberg, who has been convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison. And Joe Sandberg was, as he has since admitted in court, a fraud. In part one, everyone may now recall we introduced Joe Sandberg the way he introduced himself as a benevolent entrepreneur in Los Angeles, who co-founded a benevolent sounding company that was here to help the poor and, you know, save the world by doing what, I mean? By planting trees.

And so there were press releases about Aspirations' early $50 million investment from Steve Palmer. And Aspiration agreed to pay the Clippers $300 million over 23 years to be the team's jersey patch sponsor. But then, aspiration collapses into bankruptcy and fraud, leaving a long trail of, frankly, struggling everyday victims, well beyond the richest donor in American sports, and while Team Balmer's money helps Aspiration afford their overdue Kauai payments, according to our reporting, nothing could keep Aspiration's roof from caving in. As the very first statement, I mean,

the Clippers ever gave us in this saga back in part one indicated. The team ended its relationship with Aspiration years ago during the 2022-23 season. when aspiration defaulted on its obligations. So let's take that timeline at face value for a second. Because what I need you guys to do now is imagine, if you will, that we're heading into the following NBA season, 2023, 2024.

And you guys now are Team Kauai. It's Kauai Leonard, it's Uncle Dennis, and Kauai's actual licensed agent Mitch Frankel, a truly enterprising trio, by the way, Because when Kauai was a free agent, let's just recall, the athletic reported that Uncle Dennis had repeatedly asked Lakers owner, Jeannie Bus, for not only, quote, a guaranteed amount of off-court endorsement money, but also, David...

Part ownership of the team. Which, by rule is... Verboten? Not cool. It's a no-go. That's a no-no. Bringing us to what the Toronto Star reported, wherein Uncle Dennis then proceeds to ask Raptor's ownership

for not only a guaranteed no-go. show endorsement deal, I mean, but also... And ownership stake in the Toronto Maple Leafs, because that way, he wasn't asking for a piece of the Raptors. Uh-huh. It was politely explained to him that both teams were owned by the same company and that the request was impossible. The Lakers and the Raptors both reportedly reported

team Kauai to the NBA League office for this stuff that same summer. And the investigation by the NBA into that found no hard evidence of wrongdoing by Team Kauai or Team Bomber. And so now we are in, as you were saying, the 2023-24 season. The Clipper's disastrous partnership with Aspiration is now over. This is now life after aspiration.

After those payments that aspiration owed Kauai had stopped. And so if you were Team Kauai, I mean, what financial questions would you have for the NBA team that introduced you to aspiration in the first place? What do you think Kauai, why might be asking. Where's my money? So all of this brings us to a very crucial date in that 2023-24 season.

Because, I mean, there was a shocking development amid the wreckage of aspiration, because now, David, it is January 10th, 2024. And what does this article from Forbes say? Clippers forging new path for NBA Big Three's with Kauai Leonard extension. By signing Leonard to this extension, the Clippers might have just created the blueprint of how to build around big threes under the NBA's new collective bargaining agreement. Leonard was seemingly mindful of that when negotiating his new extension. Leonard took a projected $8.6 million less than his maximum salary, and it might wind up being even more than that.

And all of this, because of that order of operations in real life, it made me wonder what else was happening ahead of January 10th, 2024, along the trail of financial documents and limited liability companies left by Kauai Leonard and Uncle Dennis and Mitch Frankel, the very same trail that started that original... first episode almost a year ago with the conspicuously named KL2 Aspire LLC, registered to Kauai Leonard, who wears the number two in the state of California. And so this is where normally I would have you guys dramatically read the names of the other

LLCs Kauai had founded in the month of January 2024. But some may recall that I actually had Amin do this earlier in the series in February of 2026, pointing this out for any white shoe law firm or journalist to investigate. KL2, RIFC, LLC, January 2nd, 2024, and KL2, RIFC, real estate, January 2nd, 2024. Shout out to Past Amin, by the way, very helpful in the production of today's episode. He's doing a lot of work. We should pay him. The week before Kauai Leonard gave the clip.

that deeply a typical hometown discount, while he was still owed seven figures from their former team sponsor, aspiration, Team Kauai has started two new LLCs, which are still active today, KL2RIFC LLC and KL2RIFC real estate LLC. This would be the clue and the question that threw me into this rabbit hole. And there's a rabbit hole that's certain owners and politicians and alleged good guys, tried insanely hard to keep both investigative journalists and struggling everyday Americans from ever discovering. Because the question is what the fuck is going on with R-I-F-C? You want to take a guess what that stands for?

The first thing I thought of, you should reveal after the break. Oh! So this is going to be an episode in part about process. Trust it. What do you think RIFC stands for? Because as of September 2025, when I started reporting this, I had no idea myself. The only thing I can think of is having just finished watching the World Cup as a great distraction, by the way. FC is always football club.

Yes, it is. That's not where my mind went. Where did your mind go? My mind went to the R-I, actually, which in my mind I said, return on investment. R-O-I. Well, they dropped it. They dropped the O? It's a lot cleaner.

Generally, you can't drop the O. Luckily, it could be. It does not take a Pulitzer Prize-winning podcast or a prestigious white shoe law firm like Wachtel Lipton to Google this. Huh. And what you find is that when you Google R-I-F-C, While Kauai has been living and working, of course, in Southern California, the most popular search result for RIFC happens to exist on the complete opposite side of the country.

Rhode Island. Anchored in community and we are united by sport. A new home team. This time, a professional soccer league is building roots in Pawtucket. Rhode Island FC was revealed as the team's name this morning. What league is that? Well done, David. I dare to say, you guys together both kind of nailed it.

Not really. The Rhode Island Football Club, which, David, I also didn't know existed, was announced in late 2022 as a member of the United Soccer League, a second tier pro soccer league in the United States behind MLS. Why are you laughing? Because where my head is, we're sitting here together. And Rhode Island Football Club, which I'd never heard of.

I'm asking myself and I don't want to take a break, but I'd like to know who the owners are. I don't want to jump ahead, but let the owners. Hold on. All right, sorry. Let him do the thing. Sorry. This is going to be a thing, Pablo.

We're going to have to keep doing more of these. If you are now wondering, first of all, if there are any search results or examples of any kind where Rhode Island Football Club and Kauai Leonard are mentioned together, in any way of fucking course not. Of course there aren't. It turns out Kauai has never posted

about RIFC or the state of Rhode Island in general on social media, nor has RIFC ever posted about Kauai or included him in any promotional materials. There's no trace of him ever attending a game. Okay. Now I'm David, and I want to get ahead of myself and ask, did Kauai actually invest in RIFC,

or is this just a happy coincidence? I mean, what aspiration reporting has taught me is that even if there's no public record of any financial relationship or promotional relationship of any kind in public, it is still worth logging on to my favorite social media slash dating app, LinkedIn, and getting to know people he used to work at a company

that has zero public history with Kauai Leonard whatsoever. And so I found someone, David, who actually did the job that you did for the Florida Marlins but for RIFC, as we contemplate the question that Amin had just raised. Brett Louis, president's Rhode Island Football Club, November 22 to May 24. Brett Louis was the president of RIFC when Kauai started both KL2, RIFC LLC, and KL2, RIFC, Real Estate LLC in January of 2024. The same month he signed that extension.

And on September 25th, okay, this is what I was doing, weeks after he dropped part one, this is before I ever even mentioned, by the way, the words RIFC in public, I called up Brett Louis, and I introduced myself, and I asked him, point blank, if Kauai Leonard had any financial relationship with the Rhode Island Football Club. The same question to me and asked. And the way I would describe his answer to my question would be, stammery. And yet, in a fascinating way, also somehow

not surprised by the fact that I was asking about this in the first place. I mean, according to a transcript of my notes from the call, RIFC's former team president, when asked, was Kauai Leonard an investor? Did he have any financial relationship with RIFC? said this, I mean. Not sure. If he was one, I wasn't sure.

I would generally have my involvement with my direct board members in and around that. So, David, you were a team president of an organization of much larger magnitude than RIFC, no disrespect intended to the USL. I would imagine the president of a team would no answer.

Every source of- There are layers of means. So if there's an entity that invests in your team and the entity is called Pablo Tori finds out. Right. And I would know about that as the team president. I would know the principles of PTFO. Right.

Is it possible there could be an investor in PTFO? Right. Three levels below who I don't know, maybe, but not likely. But I guess my thing would be, because I guess it would be, well, I didn't know. I just saw KL2RIFC was the- No, you have to dig deeper. If there's an LLC that's investing into your team at that level,

you have to know who the principles are of that. It's funny that you guys are thinking that way. See, what my reaction was when I was told that on this phone call was, that's not a no. I'm an investigative reporter looking for clarity, and he's not telling me no. I'm like, okay, noted. But what Brett Louis offered to do on the phone was make a call.

to his former boss, the owner of RIFC himself. Oh, there you have it. This is a man by the name of Brett Johnson. And Brett Johnson happened to be the first voice, actually, that we all heard in that newscast from Channel 12, the local CBS affiliate in Rhode Island, that we played for you earlier. Anchored in community, and we are united by sport.

And just six minutes later, Abeen, Brett Louis, the former president, call me back. And he relayed what he said, RIFC wanted me to know, and again, to quote from my notes here. Quote, the team is not willing to make any kind of comment on their investor stack, unquote. Called you back to say that?

He got in trouble from his former boss. Well, what struck me about this and this investor stack is that the degree of secrecy here about who owns this second-deer soccer court, That's fairly obscure. It has struck me and several other American soccer executives that we spoke to at both the league and team levels, as unusual. Especially the smaller ones. Like Kevin Durant's invested in an MLS team and a pickleball team and they're like all these different smaller leagues that want that shine, need that shine.

I think celebrity minority ownership has like a well-worn concept in sports. Yeah, that's a thing. And it's typically a very public thing, a very public marketing thing for all of the reasons that, I mean... You remember the dolphins, Pablo. Steve Ross did this when he brought in Mark Anthony and Venus and Serena Williams. They'd get to the game and they'd walk on a red carpet to the owner's suite. I would like to disclose to you the amount of cash that they actually invested in the team. It's roughly the same amount that Pablo likely has in his pocket right now.

And it is very much a PR situation, but we're reading more and more about celebrities and athletes and athletes who are buying pieces, but it's not substantial pieces. Well, this is when I realized that I needed to make sure I was not missing anything on the ground along the red carpet of the Rhode Island Football Club. And my friend Sam Cappellman, publisher of Hunterbrook Media, very helpfully linked me with somebody who proved essential to what was now a group project. My name is Eli Sherman. I'm an investigative reporter with the CBS affiliate, WPRI,

in Rhode Island. I cover both Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts and typically cover things like public corruption, public money, business, anything government-related. But when I came to you and I said to you, hey, what about Kauai Leonard? What was your initial knee-jerk reaction to that premise? I was like, he wants, what is this theory that he has?

I never once had the name cross my mind in the context of Rhode Island in any way. You know, of course, watched him. When the Emmy Award winning Eli Sherman, by the way, says he'd never even thought of Kauai Leonard in the context of his home state, this actually means something. And it means something because if you're not familiar with Rhode Island, it happens to be the smallest state in the union in terms of physical size with the population of, I think, just over. a million people. It is also described for media junkies as a reporter's playground. You know, everyone sort of knows everybody. You're always a one to two degree separation from knowing somebody else in the state. So information and news and just talk and chatter swings

around the state so quick. When I mention sports and Rhode Island to you guys, David and Amin, What comes to mind? Pawtucket, AAA team. We had players who enjoyed that stop. It's sneaky fun, actually. Did you ever go to see a Paw Sox game? No.

The Wade. Are you crazy? Great place. Would never go there myself. By the way, the longtime AAA minor league team for the Red Sox, Jim Rice, Nomar Garcia Parra, Wade Boggs, they were all Paw Sox.

They came up through that farm system. But what happened to the Paw Sox, David? Do you recall? No, I do not. Are they, did they relocate? They left. Oh, I love that. I love that.

In 2021, the Paw Sox started playing games in Worcester, Massachusetts. Oh, yes, thank you. The Woo Sox. It's all coming back to me. Having tried and failed to, you guessed it, get taxpayer money to foot the bill for, a new stadium. Because one more thing to know about the state of Rhode Island is that it is dealing with a lot of everyday, struggling Americans who have on their plate this massive statewide housing

crisis, which Eli's colleagues at WPRI have also extensively investigated. Housing can be a complicated topic involving everything from zoning rules to interest rates to construction costs. But the current crisis is also a simple story about supply and demand. Back in 2016, a report for Maryland housing found the state needed to add at least 36,000 housing units over the next decade to meet the needs of the state's population. But so far, the state has built barely 18,000 units, only about half of what was recommended. And when supply doesn't keep up with demand, the result is what any economist would predict. Prices for the houses that are available have soared. The house builder told me the state of building new homes in Rhode Island is, quote, a disaster.

Is he wrong? No, he's right. And so, when the Paw Sox were demanding taxpayer money for this new stadium, Brett Johnson and the Rhode Island Football Club show up. And they come in with a noticeably different sales pitch. And what I need you guys to know now about Brett Johnson is that he is an entrepreneur in Los Angeles. and he also has two very interesting jobs that I need to bring your attention to, according to LinkedIn. First, I mean, he is... Founder and partner of fortuitous partners.

Fertuitous partners being the LA-based entity in charge of RIFC's stadium built in Pawtucket. And then David, Brett Johnson, is additionally... The CEO of Benevolent Capital. It's really nice. How fortuitous. Fortuitous and benevolent, in other words, are these good guy investment firms at the intersection of sports ownership and real estate and community development. Sounds so familiar.

And Brett Johnson believes that the Rhode Island Football Club and their new stadium in Pawtucket are an amazing deal for everyone. We should be building a combination of both. affordable and market rate, multifamily housing, right off the highway. A hotel would fit in very well, some retail, et cetera. Now we're completely cleaning up prime, prime real estate that's been lying fallow since since literally the Industrial Revolution. We're creating an incredible amount of jobs. But that's where when you take that whole project together, it becomes hundreds of

million dollars, if not billions of dollars of investment creates an incredible... Page two of the I Want Public Money Playbook is to let the... public know that this is actually in their best interest and you are just a catalyst to getting them what they want, whether it's housing, the word affordable housing. That's a very great word that we like to use because it's neither affordable nor housing, but let's not mince words. Or you talk about hotels, convention centers, you talk about retail. Jobs. Jobs. Jobs is the big one. Oh, it's so many jobs. I can't tell you how misleading it is to talk about job creation when it comes to stadium building and the surrounding development because it is a go-to number that we do.

And if you would see how we would measure jobs... Well, you literally built Marlins Park in Miami. You navigated the political process of the state of Florida in all of these ways. And what you're saying is that when you would come up with the sales pitch for the public, it would be... It's to give cover to the commissioners or council members who you need a yes vote from. And so you speak to them and understand what they need in their districts. and then you hit that bid to enable them to get yes.

It doesn't matter. The affordable housing and all the other bells and whistles are only the way to give cover to a politician to get to a yes vote. But there is a real affordability crisis, of course, in the state of Rhode Island and in America. Everywhere. And what this is promising is a way to address it

if you help me build my new house. And by the way, we will get back to the house that Steve Balmer built. In a second, a house that Brett Johnson, incidentally, in another interview, does seem to acknowledge is quite notable. Balmer kind of changed their trajectory on things when he bought the Clippers. If anyone was looking at at that time, people were talking about, look, maybe they'll go for $800 million. And Bomber just threw $2 billion down on the table and said, it's done. And about a day later, after he closes it, everyone was like, you know what, I think he got that for a steal.

Is this him admiring Steve Balmer from afar? strange reference points from Rhode Island to choose Steve Balmer to me. Well, look, Balmer said a record price to buy the clippers, all that stuff. He's saying, this is a great deal. And he built into it out of pocket. He did not use any. That's why we would never mention him. So I find it all very bizarre.

We had a list of stadiums that were privately financed. And to our PR people, to any spokespeople, you may not mention those ballparks. Like Pack Bell in San Francisco. You're like, that guy makes us look bad actually. because he's doing this out of pocket. We're going to the public saying, hey, taxpayers, you can't afford some stuff. Help us, help you afford stuff by giving us your money. That's right.

And it's the only way to do it. Well, it's worth remembering here. Joe Sandberg, another Los Angeles-based entrepreneur, sold the Clippers on saving the planet, planting trees with aspiration. Brett Johnson, yes, is going to benevolently and fortuitously solve your housing crisis by building you a soccer stadium. What an aspiration. A stadium, keeper post building, unlike those greedy paw socks, exclusively using private money.

David, no public funds needed for this. In fact, according to Brett Johnson in 2019, the only public money fortuitous partners needed was for the construction of the hundreds of affordable housing units in the surrounding Tidewater Landing area. But that being said, it's not for the pain of heart in terms of how much you have to invest. And you have to find a great place to play for people to show. show up and you have to build a stadium. And we intend on building that privately. But as such, we're going to want to build a lot of additional assets. So we want office space. We want to build multifamily housing, retail, commercial, bars, restaurants. So to be clear, private money for stadium,

public money for housing. But speaking of P-words, the thing that happens next is the pandemic. And inflation surges. And, I mean, what? What do you think happen to the costs of Brett Johnson's new stadium? They skyrocketed. And so Brett Johnson goes back into the lab, and he returns with a new pitch for the state of Rhode Island. Because you remember all the public taxpayer money that was going to help solve the housing crisis?

Well, now they need that public taxpayer money to be diverted to the building of this increasingly skyrocketingly expensive stadium after all, which fortuitous partners, contrary to its name, could not afford on their own. And imagine how you're the local officials in the state of Rhode Island, and you're hearing this switcheroo.

You may not be surprised to learn that it was way less popular this time. Kind of felt like the whole Paw Sox public money problem all over again, as our guy in Rhode Island, Eli Sherman, explained. It was a bit of a bloodbath, you know, like housing, the housing crisis is a real thing here. It's talked about all the time.

It's a huge priority of several state leaders. So this idea of, yeah, we're going to kick the can down the road on the housing side of this and use that public money to build an entertainment complex instead. It was not an easy decision to make. And so Brett Johnson's Tidewater Landing Stadium deal, he gets tied up. It is now frozen. Rhode Island does not sign off, but in late 2022, a very important person does.

Well, Mike, the heavily debated and increasingly expensive project is moving ahead now, thanks to the state approving another $27 million in taxpayer money. Chair votes, yes. Governor Dan McKee casting the tie-breaking vote after the Rhode Island Commerce Board was divided on pitching in an extra $27 million to bail out the Tidewater Landing project. The governor of Rhode Island himself, Governor Dan McKee, steps in to approve the deal. And along with the State Commerce Board, the members of that council, they save Brett Johnson's new stadium.

And actually what happened is that Governor McKee also sits on this board and he stepped in to serve as the tie-breaking vote on this board that was otherwise split on this decision. So he really put his name on that decision to make the stadium work. And so now, here we are, finally, in the spring of 2023. And while aspiration is collapsing in L.A., tanking the Jersey patch sponsorship, and spiraling into bankruptcy with a federal investigation underway, and a presumably dissatisfied Kauai Leonard, looking, For the millions, he is still owed.

This ongoing mystery reminded me of what I had learned back in September of 25. When I called RIFC's former president to ask whether Kauai Leonard, the proprietor of KL2 RIFC LLC and KL2RIFC Real Estate LLC, had any financial relationship with this soccer team. The team is not willing to make any kind of comment on their investor stack. Thankfully, however, somewhere inside this new stack of documents, there was another state in our union whose public records were worth examining. And we've been talking about this state in this episode.

David, you know it well. It's the same state where both Uncle Dennis Robertson and Agent Mitch Frankel have listed addresses in the original KL2 aspiration contract. Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. God, do I love Palm Beach Gardens. Section 4.1A. Legal Notices. Care of Dennis Robertson, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. And this legal notices section of the contract for KL to Aspire LLC continues on the next page.

With a mandatory copy to Mitchell Franco, Boca Raton, Florida. And hiding in the state of Florida, I mean, very quietly, was not another KL2, R-I-F-C-L-L-C, but this. Filed August 21st, 2025. The name of the limited liability company is D-RR-R-I-F-C real estate. If you are wondering what DRR stands for, The name of the registered agent is Dennis Robertson. Or, as his LinkedIn page clarifies, Dennis R. Robertson, which felt like, you know, it felt like something.

Uncle Dennis is back. Uncle Dennis is in this deal. Somehow. But at this point, admittedly, all we really had after months of Stonewalled records and requests and phone calls about Kauai. We're three LLCs now with RIFC in the name, all of which remain active to the day. Kauai's two LLCs and now his uncles won. And when our collaborators at Hunterbrook Media entered those LLCs, RIFC and RIFC real estate,

into a giant nationwide property database, they got exactly zero-hift. hits back, indicating that Kauai and his uncle and his agent don't own any actual real estate through those entities at all, leaving our group project, despite all this paper, in a bit of a bind. We wanted to be sure that Kauai Leonard's involvement with the Rhode Island FC was beyond sort of this mysterious LLC that just happened to have RIFC in a very similar way that it did with the aspiration deal.

And so now I'm going to tell you guys why I love local news. Because that is also what this episode is implicitly about if you can't tell. Earlier this year, Eli Sherman of WPRI, here is that Rhode Island football club owner, Brett Johnson,

will be traveling from his home. home in Los Angeles to the great state of Rhode Island in March to speak on some panel. And when Eli reaches out to Brett Johnson's reps, they basically just blow Eli off. They say that Brett would not be available to talk about the business and finances of his franchise, which again, we have been investigating now for many, many months, ever since I got blown off in September of 25. But what Eli does is what all great reporters do. He shows up. Hey, Brad.

Hi, U.I. Sherman. Hey, from WPRI. How's it going? Good, good. Thank you. I just, at some point I would like to have a broader conversation with you, but I have some merchant orders that I need to ask. And the first is about your investor's staff.

Yeah. Is Kauai Leonard in any way affiliated with the team? Kauai Leonard is a friend and his uncle and his agent, The three of them are invested, small investors. That's Dennis Robertson and Kauai. Yeah. And their agent. Yeah.

So there are immediately a couple fun things there. I want to point out. Hold on, man. Why don't we get all this runaround if he's just going to answer the question straight up? Well, I think it's very funny that Kauai Leonard, in fact, is an unannounced, never-before-disclosed co-owner of this random-ass pro-socker club in Rhode Island. and that also, according to the team owner, Brett Johnson, he's a friend. A dear friend. A dear friend.

But I think, just as interesting, is the additional fact that it's not just Kauai. Who's an investor? Money making Mitch is in this zoo. Brett Johnson says that his investment also includes, yes, Uncle Dennis, who would start DRR, RIFT Real Estate LLC in August of 2020. years after he'd reportedly asked NBA owners in 2019 Free Agency to give Kauai Leonard ownership stakes in pro sports teams. So too, owning a stake in a pro sports team

is Mitch Frankel. The question is, what's the consideration that was given in order to get the shares of stock they got? At what level did they invest? What percentage? Do they have a board seat? Do they have any say at all? were they brought in not for their names because their names aren't being used.

So what is the purpose of it? Yeah. That'd be my first question. Yes. And as we examine why it is that all three members of Team Kauai had business relationships with both aspiration,

which owes Kauai these millions of dollars in caps or convention payments, according to our reporting. And now, RIFC, we need to say, for the record, we do not have the precise data on what Team Kauai's ownership stakes are worth. We continue to investigate it, but nobody involved will tell us what they cost to acquire,

if anything, or their estimated present-day value. What we know is that our IFC stadium alone is worth $140 million, I mean, and that Brett Johnson, his sales pitch, which we all heard before, is that any such stake is going to get so much bigger. When you take that whole project together, it becomes hundreds of million dollars, if not billions, of dollars of investment creates an incredible amount of jobs. And it's very rare that I see a market that doesn't have a need for more housing. And Rhode Island certainly in that camp.

So it's great to be able to start to solve a problem that they have on that side as well. It's a tear in my eye. The other thing we have, though, it's not a small thing, guys. We have from the principal owner, confirmation that these, three individuals are investors. Yes, we don't know to what degree, what level, what former does, but we now know that is confirmation. They are involved in this.

We're not just, we're not just connecting dots on our own. This has now been confirmed by the owner and by multiple. When was that? March of 26, which is months after my first call to former team president guy in September of 25. And I should say that. we reached out, of course, with detailed questions about all of this, about the business and the finances and the apparent friendship.

We asked representatives for Kauai Leonard. We asked Dennis Robertson and Mitch Frankel directly, and they did not respond. It's an interesting situation where he had asked for ownership of a team and you can't have Maple Leafs and Raptors, you can't have Lakers, now you can't have Lakers Dodgers. But when you talk about Clippers and RIFC, the connective tissue is not as obvious.

Sure. Unless Pablo tells us it is, but on the surface, it's not as obvious. What we're telling the story of is, in the timeline, once aspiration effectively vaporizes, what happens as Kauai is taking his hometown discount in the background?

What's filling the space, right? Like in basketball, when you run a pick and roll and the guy in the corner goes, someone else comes back and fills because... In soccer too. With the triangles, fill the space. Fill the space.

But speaking of triangles, speaking of big threes, something else Brett Johnson wanted to stress to Eli during their in-person interview, which continues, is that Brett's dealings with Team Kauai, that big three, are not simply financial. He says that Team Kauai like him. They care about the larger housing crisis in Rhode Island. They're particularly interested in real estate, finding ways to invest in housing, particularly low-income areas.

Yeah, because they saw they had some LLCs that they set up that were like KL2, Rhode Island FC. And I was like, this must be something here. So they're interested not just with the team, but also with real estate. In general, and again, I don't like to make a habit of talking about any of our investors, but I know it's out in the public and then. But again, they're interest, cool. Kauai is very interested in using his capital to make a change in communities.

And the housing is what's very important to it. Okay. Yeah. It's Kauai's number one investment goal when he sits with his advisors. I want to help the housing situation in Rhode Island. And plant trees. He's very benevolent. And fortuitous.

But to date, as with aspiration, we, of course, have found zero proof or indication of anything that Kauai may have ever done in terms of the massive and very real problem of affordable low-income housing in the state of Rhode Island. And again, as with aspiration, Eli and I, we've been wondering for months, why RIFC has never announced that Kauai is connected to them in any way or vice versa. And so he asked Brett Johnson about that too. And I just wonder because, you know, I see with some other USL teams, they have a big name.

Like, can't she sell some merch off of why? I don't think so. It's not, I mean, again, these athletes, I have the utmost respect in terms of their privacy, and, you know, they want to make a difference with their investment at the other day. Like this, this, they want to see their investment get a return, but they also want to see a create job. They want to see housing. Everything that we're doing resonated with, you know, someone like you.

Okay. And with his own, you know, they're, and by extension, they're managing. Got it. But when it comes to these athletes and their privacy around their investments, it does seem worth mentioning, I mean, that Kauai Leonard has announced other investments before, actually. For instance, this is from front office sports in 2020. Los Angeles Clippers star Kauai Leonard is joining Natural Performance Supplement Company X2 Performance as an investor and member of its board of directors.

Quote, he will be the face of the brand. X2's CEO told CNBC, Leonard will also be directly involved with, quote, product innovation and marketing support. That's like when they come up with their own perfumes. We're very involved in the ingredients to make the perfume. Now, the question is, like, so what does this all smell like? Because the fact is,

Kauai has participated in press releases for other stuff. That's what makes the aspiration deal in the first place so insane that it was top secret as well. And now here we have another one in the world of the United Soccer League, in which, by the way, some very notable athletes who are otherwise considered pretty private are actually very public as investors. For instance, David, this is from days ago this month. This is a pretty interesting headline from Yahoo. Russell Westbrook explains how he helped design OKCU-N.

United's soccer logo. The OKC United will be part of the U.S.L championship in 2008. Westbrook is one of the more notable investors. Another is Jalen Williams. Which makes sense. They're thunder players or were. And I mean, in 2021, there was this from ESPN. Former NFL star Mar Sean Lint.

joins ownership group for USL's Oakland Roots. Quote, growing up in the town, I knew the minute I heard about the opportunity to join Oakland Roots, it wasn't just something I wanted to do. It was something I had to do. And quote, Lynch said in a statement. When we asked another majority owner in the United Soccer League if a superstar investor from another sport would ever stay anonymous, the owner said, quote, they could help us sell merch. And when our partners on this story at WPRI asked the mayor of Patucket about Kauai Leonard and his involvement specifically, which he had no idea about, he said, quote, if I were them, I'd be shouting it because of the positivity it brings to the organization. End quote. It takes one visit, Pablo. When you are a celebrity investor, if you make an appearance, if you own a clothing company, a little piece and then you wear that piece of clothing,

Ryan Reynolds is very famous for doing this. He'll take positions and then he will promote and then it will increase his worth because he gets equity. Equity is how you actually make real money. Salary is not. And so Kauai Lennard taking positions in different assets, that is not shocking to me in any way.

No. But what he should be doing is trying to increase the value of the asset, which is what you do by going to Potocket. By doing literally anything. Anything would be helpful. Wearing an RIFC hat. But in fairness, in fairness, right? Maybe Brett Johnson and the Rhode Island Football Club

are not like these other teams, right? Maybe they just have a stringent policy around not disclosing their investor stack across the board as their ex-president had relayed by phone last September to me. In fact, when we asked RIFC for official comment for this episode, a team spokesperson told us, quote, Rhode Island FC's policy is to maintain the confidentiality of individual investor holdings. Accordingly, Rhode Island FC does not comment on specific investor stakes, valuations, or shareholdings

beyond information that has already been made public. End quote. But speaking of what has already been made public, very late in the game, while digging through the true dregs of RIFC's online history, David. We discovered a post from March 23 that not many people saw. And this tweet was sent by

at Rhode Island FC itself. Squad keeps getting stronger and taller. We are thrilled to welcome at D-T-H-E-I-S-10 to the R-I-F-C ownership group. Let me see that. It's Daniel Tice? Wow.

It's his former Boston Celtic, German Big Man world champion, I believe, with Germany, Daniel Tice. Celtics, though. He was a Celtic. He was close to Rhode Island. Yeah. They've gone to Rhode Island. I guess the question here immediately is, why would you tweet out NBA journeyman, Daniel Tice, who is still in the league at this point?

Why would you tweet out that he's joining your ownership group, but not the NBA superstar in your investor's stack? It's funny because when David started to read it, I was like, oh, maybe they did announce that Kauai was part of this. And then I had to do the math in my hand. I'm like, let me see that paper. I rep for Daniel Tice after initially showing interest in scheduling an interview with Tice and WPRI, ghosted our local news friends. Didn't respond to Eli's questions about his involvement with the team. And I should say that I'm going to cast aside as a mean I think looks at basketball reference.com.

I'm about to... That's exactly what I'm about to do. I'm going to cast aside the pretty interesting coincidence that Daniel Tice happened to sign with what team of meeting during the 23-24 season. I was going to look it up because I was like, was he a clipper for a little bit of time? Of course he was.

Oh, God. But we're going to cast that aside because maybe that's a coincidence. Jesus. There's only so many teams in the NBA. I just keep looking for rational explanations as to why multiple insanely... secretive companies along the timeline of Kauai's team-friendly Clippers extensions wind up never

announcing they're in relationships with them. It seems counterproductive financially, if nothing else. Played one season with the Clippers, and it just happened to be the same season that we're talking about here. Hey, hey, hey, settle down. Come on. This is where I need to disclose, I mean, that we did reach out to Team Balmer and the Clippers, and we asked them if the NBA's law firm walked out Lept and had inquired about RIFC in terms of Kauai and their 11-month investigation, maybe making this story the unnamed second sponsorship that the athletic recently mentioned. Or maybe it's just something new entirely with new information that might worry the commissioner, Adam Silver, given that the RIFC deal apparently wasn't a sponsorship at all, but this investment. We also asked the clippers of anyone

in the organization was aware that Kauai and or Dennis Robertson and or Mitch Frankl had acquired ownership stakes finally in a pro sports team, the Rhode Island Football Club. Or if the team was aware that in January of 2024, Kauai had even registered KL2 RIFC LLC and KL2RIFC Real Estate LLC the week before he gave the Clippers that $8.6 million discount on his extension, which was after the Clippers and Team Balmer had finally cut aspiration loose as corporate partner and Jersey Patch sponsor. And the Clippers did not respond.

But once again, while we await clarity, I will simply quote the Clippers' former GM, Michael Winger. Quote, how many fucking side deals have we made with Quai? And so we are left

with the frozen trade in Adam Silver's unknown calendar of investigation, and still more questions, obviously, including about how coincidental it is, David, that ESPN reported this just a few weeks ago in July. Sources.

Kauai Leonard hires new agent to oversee next Raptors deal. Leonard has hired Harrison Gaines of Slash Sports as his new agent to oversee negotiations, sources told the SPN. The change is a major shift for Leonard, who previously had Mitch Frankel and his uncle and business advisor Dennis Robertson handle all of his affairs. Frankel represented Leonard on his negotiations with the

LA Clippers, including a three-year extension signed in 2024. The point is, for the first time, they switch representation. And Kauai's new agent, for the record, did not respond to a request for comment. And so we are also left with the thing

that was just mentioned there, Kauai's 2024 extension, and about how purely coincidental it is that Brett Johnson and Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee combined to save the Rhode Island Football Club more than 2,500 miles away from the Intuit Dome, just in time for Team Kauai to get some of that sweet sports ownership equity

they had previously demanded, which now takes us to May 3rd, 2025. This weekend in Pawtucket, going to be big for sports fans, especially soccer fans, with the first game ever at Centerville Bank Stadium for Rhode Island FC. Because at long last, We get to opening day in Patucket, where Brett Johnson is finally opening Centerville Bank Stadium. And here it is.

Lovely. There's a sellout crowd of some 10,500 fans in attendance. That's capacity. People gazing up at the brand new Daktronics Jumbotron. Ooh, seen here? Manufactured by the same company that made the Intuit Dome's enormous halo board. Although, according to Bloom, I mean, there was a little fine print on what RIFC Stadium ultimately cost the public.

Rhode Island City draws eye-popping yield on municipal debt for new soccer arena. Taxpayers are paying dearly to bring a pro sports team back to the faded industrial city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. A few short years after losing the Paw Sox, the minor league affiliate of the Boston Red Sox to Massachusetts, Pawtucket is betting it will be able to draw fans to a more than 10,000 seat stadium to see an untested U.S. pro soccer team playing in the sports second tier. A redevelopment agency in the New England city sold $54 million in tax-exempt bonds

to build the minor league soccer arena at a yield of 8.24% equivalent to almost 14% on taxable securities. How does that deal sound? I'm in. Right? I mean... I was like,

Oh, okay. I mean, I have to look to see who's backing. If the state of Rhode Island is backing these bonds, then I'm in. I'd have to really look at the... But I guess what I'm saying is from the perspective of the state of Rhode Island, from the city of Pawtucket. Oh, yeah. Oh, these are high-yield.

Yeah, that's what I was really... Those are high-yield bonds. I love that Dave was like, look, as a... As a investor and... Yeah, this is great. As a taxpayer... You could not even fathom the through line of... and meticulously crafting this whole episode

of what would it be like to be the everyday American who is contemplating this deal? Oh, I'm paying for this. Sold! Can we, can we, do you take Venmo? Can we... It's so perfect.

14% on taxable security. The point being, several months later, on the back of that, quote, eye-popping commitment of public money for some wicked good soccer as the team motto goes. You got to say it like them, though. Wicked good soccer.

Saka. Saka. Saka. Saka. Wicked good Saka. My father-in-law is horrified. We were frustrated in the studio. I mean, look, Kauai has still never said a recorded word about the team, though he did start following the official team account on Instagram.

Okay. At some point. That's big. After we made many, many calls and filed many, many public records requests, asking about him of all the people you've now met in this story, which is something. That's way more than he did for aspiration. Absolutely. Shout out to doing literally anything. But then we realized something.

Among these towers of documents stacked before you guys, these thousands and thousands of new pages that we amassed in the hopes of pulling a needle out of these stacks, as it were, there was one particularly curious piece of paper. A piece of paper that is technically a public record, but it required a kind of decoding of its own. And this document, David, is the final document in your folder. So what does it say across the top? Schedule. Gov calendar. This is the calendar for Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee, the most important public servant in this story. And this calendar, recorded by the governor's office,

is from just a few months after the opening of that wicked good new soccer stadium. Soaka. Soaka Stadium in Patucka. and the document continues. On Friday, October 24th, 2025, time zone, eastern time, L.A. trip. I mean, you may now be wondering.

What in the fuck? What the governor of Rhode Island doing 2,500 miles away from his home state in L.A. at all? Maybe it's one of those conventions, the governor conventions they do sometimes? Well, good question, good guess. But according to his office, Governor McKee was there on government business.

to do this. Visit the headquarters of businesses with important Rhode Island operations and conduct outreach to other organizations. And at the end of such a long day of important visits, the Governor of Rhode Island's calendar lists what, David? Private, open parentheses, tentative, close parentheses, 9.45 p.m. to 11.45 p.m.

It is also notable that many of the entries on this calendar are quite detailed and quite specific, whereas this one is not. Because when you're dealing with the public, the county, city, state, public records requests in order to hide yourself. So let me answer it in another interesting, funny way. when we gave our team financials to the county, which we did with the Marlins deal, we never gave it to the public officials

because then it would be subject to journalists like you seen it. We would give it to a private banker who was hired by the county to look at the financials and then the private consultant would say to the public officials, I've seen the financials, they're telling the truth, or they can't afford more, et cetera. but we would never hand over a document to the public negotiators because then it could be found by Pablo. And so what I'm gathering here, David, is that you guys at the Marlins worked with public officials, often, to ensure secrecy, including on stuff like calendars.

We were super careful to make it so no one would be able to find anything. Private parentheses tentative. yet another redacted stone wall in front of our investigation. But, I mean, October 24th, 2025, what do you think may have been happening in Los Angeles? Can I hazard a guess? I would love nothing more. Is it a clipper game?

Oh, God. Good God, all right. On October 24th, 2025, the Los Angeles Clippers just happened to be hosting the Phoenix sons. The Home Opener? Season, home opener, that season. And when was tip-off time, by the way? I mean, they're on the box score in front of you.

10.30 p.m. Eastern time. That local would be 7.30 p.m. But yeah, but Eastern time on the calendar. So right there. So, yeah, 9.45 on your calendar is because he wants to get there early enough to high-five the guys coming out of tunnel. I don't know. To make important connections.

Yeah. To advance the business of Rhode Island. By the way, how do I do in that game? I had a great game. 27 points on 11 to 21 shooting. And so, after making even more calls about this private trip, what our group project decided to do was dispatch Eli's colleague from WPRI's Target 12 investigative unit,

managing editor Tim White, to ask a few questions as part of an on-camera interview with the sitting governor of Rhode Island, Dan McKee, who happens to be seeking re-election in November. So, Governor, I want to talk about the Clippers game. How did that come about? Who invited you? I invited myself.

I wanted to go to the games, and I did. I paid for the ticket. You know, paid for the reimburse to people for the ticket, the expense, and had a good time. He just loves the Clippers. He's a big basketball fan. He looks up on the counter. Who was playing the night? Oh, Oswee Godaro starting for the suns.

But that's not all, because as we now know, you're always one or two degrees of separation from somebody else in this story. And what the governor's office finally had admittedly quite exasperatedly conceded to Eli is that Governor McKee was sitting at the Clippers' home opener where he had, quote, invited myself with none other than Brad Johnson. the owner of a second-deer soccer team that was secretly co-owned by Kauai Leonard and the two men who have since stopped representing him in contract negotiations, his uncle Dennis Robertson and his agent Mitch Frankel. And at this point,

things with the governor got a little awkward. And you joined Brett Johnson right in a booth. He was with you as well? Brett was there. Yeah, yeah, I like Brett. Did you meet anyone else at the game? From the Clippers. Like players? Yeah.

I got into a room where they were. walk by or they can get any introductions. So you didn't get to talk to Kauai Leonard? No. Okay. I'm asking because Kauai Leonard is an investor in Rhode Island Football Club. Were you aware of that? Not really, but I know that there was some players that were, you know, involved in it.

But again, I went to a game. I paid for the ticket. I did it after business that we did in a really good business for the people in the state of Rhode Island, and I enjoyed the game. Not really. is just, I gotta keep pointing this out, is not no. Which is the thing that also

was quite noticeable when I first called the former president of RIFC in September of 2025. Why can no one just say no on the question of Kauai Leonard? So just, I want to be clear, you say, not really when I asked you about Kauai Leonard. Were you aware that he was an investor in RIFC

or not? Well, I would have to go back and look at that. But the most important thing here is that I went through the game. I paid for the ticket. I reimbursed it just like anybody else would, and I enjoyed the game. You know, we just find it interesting that Kauai Leonard is an investor in a minor league soccer team here in Rhode Island. Do you have any idea how that came about and why it hasn't been shouted from the rooftops?

I mean, that's kind of a big deal. He's probably one of the best players in the NBA, and he's interested in Rhode Island. Well, I'm happy that the soccer program is going well and Brett's recruiting. I've met with many of the investors, but Quy Lennon wasn't one of them, although he was on my fantasy basketball team this year. I actually like that last answer better than anything before. 100%. I met a lot of investors. Quy Lennon wasn't the ones I met, but he wasn't on my fantasy team.

We never trade that guy. He's so good. So good at basketball. I just, it is. I would have to go back and look at that. It's also not no. That's such a weird response. Well, you're a politician.

You don't want to say anything that you're going to get caught. You don't want to do what Steve Balmer did after our first episode, which is get up there and say unequivocally and have statements that say, this is irrefutable and all that stuff. And then we do a little bit more researching like, ah, you kind of did. I dare say that all of this is the story of what happens after aspiration in the timeline of the Clippers and in the timeline of our investigation here, people are learning ostensibly lessons

about what to do after that went horrifically bad. But now we are back to Kauai. When you were with Brett Johnson, you know, obviously, that's his soccer club there. You're watching Kauai Leonard on the floor. He didn't mention to you, by the way, that guy right there loves Rhode Island and he has a piece of the soccer team.

So I can't recall a specific, He did say that he's got investors out in California. I have met some of them, but I have never met. Quilana loved to meet with him. I tell him that he's an unbelievable ball player. That one's harder for me to believe. When you're watching a game and you've got a relationship with a player, you're going to show that off.

Drop 27. Watching him drop 27 next to the guy who is his friend. And partner. And you're with the governor. And by the way, the governor doesn't go alone to a game. Can we just point that out to it? Yes. But here you will recall that Governor McKee had said to us that he, quote, invited himself to the game, which is fun, because this is where we will now point out that when Eli and WPRI separately asked the governor's press secretary how the clipper's tickets were purchased for the governor and Brett Johnson and their party, they were told in their newsroom that the seats were held, I mean, by?

380 AMK, a sports marketing agency that has no business with the state of Rhode Island. And while 380 AMK has no business with the state of Rhode Island, according to the governor of Rhode Island's press office, it is worth observing that 380 AMK, according to their own Instagram account, has worked with a company that has directly replaced aspiration in another, very notable way. And that is the current Clippers jersey patch sponsor, Abin, the one team Balmer partnered with after aspiration collapsed in fraud. Visit Rwanda.

In fact, 380 AMK, according to the LinkedIn page we found for one of their brand marketing people, is the agency that manages Visit Rwanda's partnership with Steve Balmer's Los Angeles Clippers. Quote, delivering premium cultural brand experiences. for C-suite executives, celebrities, and athletes. Right, so 380 AMK, right, has manages visit Rwanda. They also hooked up the tickets or sold the tickets or provided the tickets. It's their seats.

It's their seats. Yes, they provided the tickets. To the governor of Rhode Island, who is there with the owner of RIFC, who has an investment with... with Quai and Uncle Dennis and Mitch Frankel. This was all happening before we ever published a single thing, right? Right. So I want to give them some grace that this web, which involves the governor of Rhode Island

and this C-suite executive, Brett Johnson, whose stadium deal the governor saved, um, yeah, it takes us to, again, visit Rwanda, which is itself the story of a foreign government embroiled in geopolitical controversy. using sports to clean up its image. That's its whole own thing. This whole episode. But for now, we reached out to 380 AMK for comment about whether anyone from the clippers themselves

were aware that Governor Dan McKee and Brett Johnson were visiting and they didn't respond. So in the governor's mind, so was Brett Johnson his guest? Did they go have these on this? How does that work? Maybe it was just a coincidence. They just happened to sit there together. Like, oh, Brett, what are you doing here?

What are the odds of that? Good to see you, man. Maybe everyone from Rhode Island has to sit in a certain section in the Intuit dome. I like the idea of asking Brett, what are you doing here? And Brett's like, just catch a game. What are you doing here? I was just in town and wanted to catch a game.

And I don't know anyone on the floor. Yeah, and look, the governor and one of his other people from Rhode Island, yeah, they had to reimburse their tickets and then pay personally for each of that. That's very normal. Of course. You have to do that. That part totally tracks. But I guess what I'm saying near the end here is this.

Whether or not this all. smells like an insane cap circumvention scheme to you, and whether or not the NBA is investigating any part of what we've just been discussing, the story of our IFC. And whether or not the league suspends or voids or does anything to Kauai's contract or punishes Steve Balmer's clippers in any way at all, our mission here on this show is to journalistically pursue the very thing that Adam Silver has been saying he doesn't want to do,

which is investigate where stories. like this actually lead forever. You need finality in these and you could keep investigating forever, but you just have to... And the reason why we want to keep doing that, guys, is because this whole series, from Aspiration to RIFC, should probably piss you off some if you care at all about the concept of the public interest.

Because according to Eli and WPRI, Governor Dan McKee, effectively, is the dude who greenlit the diversion of $27 million in public funding away from affordable housing and that development that Brett Johnson was advertising to help build Brett Johnson's stadium instead. And now, as the governor seeks re-election, Rhode Island taxpayers are going to spend an eye-popping $116.6 million, that's the accounting now, over the next three decades to pay off the bond. While, by the way, Brett Johnson and company are also pursuing even more public subsidies for, yes, even more housing.

Rhode Island FC actually says in that statement to us that it is working with new partners and has, quote, finalized both city and state permitting for over 400 units of housing, which is now in full design. Construction will begin as soon as that design work is complete, end quote. Which brings us all the way back to why Brett Johnson and is, quote, unquote friend, Kawhi Leonard, and Kauai's uncle Dennis, were these benevolent investors, small B, in RIFC, in the first place. Yeah, they're particularly interested in real estate, finding ways to invest in housing,

particularly low-income areas. But again, their interest, Kauai is very interested in using his capital to make a change in communities, and the housing is what's very important to it. Okay. And so here is my last question for you guys. If you had to guess in this entire stadium project, which also involves many other developers seeking additional taxpayer-backed subsidies, how many of those hundreds of units of affordable housing do you think have been built as we sit here today under this roof? 300 units.

Can I go under that? It was only supposed to be hundreds. I'm going to say 10% of what was promised. I would say 30 would be my number. I'm here to report that the correct answer is zero. What? I mean, under 10%.

David, this remains something for them to aspire to. Benevolently. This has been Pablo Torre finds out, a metal arc media production. An additional reporting for this episode, was provided by Michelle Sarah, David Kavucci, Andrew Ford, Gabe Goodwin, Sam Copleman, Benson Lau, Matt Sullivan, and Tim White. For much, much more, incidentally, on the tale of RIFC in Rhode Island, visit WPRI.com. And for breaking news updates on the NBA's investigation into Kauai Leonard and the LA Clippers, I greatly urge you to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

and I will remind you that our tip line is always open at 51385 Pablo. But for now, I'll talk to you next time.