A federal investigation has been opened into the LA Clippers for allegedly circumventing the NBA’s salary cap to compensate Kawhi Leonard, The New York Times reported Thursday, citing people briefed on the matter.
The criminal investigation, led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, is in its earliest stages, The Times reported.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ESPN; neither did spokespeople for the Clippers or the NBA.
The investigation follows the NBA’s nearly yearlong probe of the Clippers by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, which “found a pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations by the Clippers organization, a prior offender of the salary cap circumvention rules.”
The NBA issued a severe punishment for the team, including the loss of five future first-round draft picks, a $30 million fine and a yearlong suspension of owner Steve Ballmer.
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