FBI Took Mark Walter's Phone Off a Private Plane in Chicago. He Sold the Lakers 11 Months Later.

Federal agents searched Mark Walter's private plane at Chicago's Midway International Airport on September 18 and walked off with his phone and laptop, according to Bloomberg's Zachary R. Mider, Ava Benny-Morrison and Myles Miller. The same day, the FBI seized a phone belonging to Dina DiLorenzo, president of Guggenheim Investments, according to the Financial Times.

That was 11 months before Walter sold his controlling stake in the Los Angeles Lakers to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger for $12.5 billion. Nobody outside a small circle knew about the device seizures when that deal was announced this month. The public didn't learn about them until Bloomberg's report landed this week, well after the sale had already stunned the NBA.

What investigators are looking at

The probe, run out of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan with the SEC also involved, reportedly started with a whistleblower complaint about how Guggenheim Investments booked revenue inside Guggenheim Private Investments, according to the Wall Street Journal. Guggenheim says its auditors gave "unqualified opinions" on the subsidiary's 2024 and 2025 financials.

From there the scope grew. Investigators are now examining roughly $16 billion in loans made by two Delaware-based life insurers Walter controls, Delaware Life Insurance and Clear Spring Life and Annuity, to businesses connected to Walter or his TWG Global holding company, according to Bloomberg and the Journal. Insurance companies are required to disclose loans to affiliated entities as related-party transactions, a rule meant to protect policyholders from conflicts of interest.

Delaware Life initially told regulators about $1.4 billion in investments tied to Walter's other businesses. It later revised that figure to $17 billion, according to Sportico.