Top Dem donor and Gavin Newsom backer charged with $250 million "carbon credit" fraud

Adapted from an article by Luke Rosiak at the DailyWire.com.  His piece is worth reading.

This story checks so many boxes on the "SOooo typical" list that my first thought was that it had to be a spoof.

A California Democrat who donated millions to Gavin Newsom--and wailed about the corruption of Wall Street banks--started a company to sell "carbon credits." For young Americans that's a legal scam created by Democrats bleating that "Globull Worming" is killing the planet.  The grift works like this:
  After Democrats convinced Americans that carbon dioxide was a poison gas that was fatally warming the planet, they were able to *pass a law fining companies millions of dollars for emitting more carbon dioxide (such as by using gas furnaces to melt metal) than duh Dems thought was right.  But if that company's product depends on melting metal, you can't very well stop and still stay in business.
  But don't worry, deplorable!  Cuz here comes Company B--run by Democrats, of course--which claims to be doing something that absorbs CO2.  Yay!  So the gruberment gives Company B a "carbon credit.

With me so far?  Now,  the company that actually makes a product, like cars or pipe or gutters, buys Company B's "carbon credit" for less than the fine the first company would have had to pay.  So the company that actually makes useful stuff saves some money by paying the Dem/grift company B for something that only exists because of a Democrat-rammed law.

Neat grift, eh?  And we haven't even gotten to the good part yet!  Which is: Company B gets its "carbon credit" by promising to plant trees--which soak up CO2.  So where do they plant those trees?  

Africa.  Where in Africa?  Uhhh...don't ask.  And of course back when Obozo and bribem were running things (well, bribem's handlers), the EPA never bothered to even *ask the company where they were planting tens of thousands of trees--let alone check to see if trees were actually being planted.  I mean, ebrywun know dat Democrat bidnessmen nevah lie.  Dat only dun by duh eeeebil Rethuglicans, eh?

SOooo...the head grifter here is named Joe Sanberg--a top "Democrat activist."  He and other high-profile Democrats started a combination "carbon-credit" and online banking app called "Aspiration Partners."  Their business was planting trees--in Africa--for which duh Dem gruberment would give 'em precious, valuable "carbon credits."  And then for the bargain price of six figures a year dey wud sell those credits to other companies.

The company instantly became a star of the “environmental, social, and governance (ESG)” movement beloved by the Left, giving good ratings to companies that pushed leftist policies.  Actors like Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert Downey Jr. were said to be investors.

But it was all horseshit.  The Department of Justice said Sanberg created fake customers for his tree-planting services to try to dupe investors into a $2 billion valuation.  Sanberg promised his company would pay third parties in Africa to plant trees there to offset CO2 emissions here.  But apparently that never happened.

Sanberg and his partners were able to get banks to loan 'em tens of millions based on the value of their stock in the company.  He faces up to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of wire fraud, according to the Department of Justice.

Sanberg has been a big player in California politics, a Gavin Newsom donor who personally spent $11 million backing a ballot initiative to raise the state’s minimum wage to $18 an hour. 

Sanberg also faces civil Securities and Exchange Commission charges that he created fake customers to make his scam appear profitable and popular.  SEC charged that Sanberg recruited friends, associates, small businesses and religious organizations and presented them to Aspiration as bona fide customers who were fully committed to paying large sums of money for the tree-planting services.

In reality Sanberg funded initial payments himself, making them appear to be from the fake customers.

Sanberg was able to raise more than $300 million from investors who believed the company was a thriving business, based on the hip goal of environmental sustainability.  Sanberg owned 30% of the company and was able to get a staggering $100 million in loans backed by the alleged value of his shares.  Wow!

One of Sanberg's co-founders was Andrei Cherny, who worked for Bill Clinton and Al Gore and headed the Arizona Democratic Party.  The SEC complaint said Sanberg texted Cherny in 2020 saying, “if you don’t get me the money tomorrow we are all f…ed. Get me the money. Your turn to figure it out like I have for so long.  If you don’t then [the lender] will foreclose." 

In 2021 Sanberg tried to take the company public, via a device called a "special purpose acquisition company"--essentially an existing shell.  He told prospective investors his revenue was “up 584%” due in part to “enterprise sustainability services.”  That was "trendy" enough to keep people from asking, lest they look un-cool. 

In January of 2022 the board gave him an $8 million cash bonus, “despite having low cash reserves.” That year, Aspiration reported $104 million in fictitious revenue.  Its outside auditor resigned due to “characteristics of fraud.”

The effort to go public collapsed in 2023, but not before taking $300 million from investors, including former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

Things started to unravel after Sanberg and another investor, board member, and high-profile Democrat donor, Ibrahim Alhusseini, stiffed a lender. When the lender sued, documents revealed in the discovery process showed that Alhusseini had gotten huge loans based on fake financial statements.

The FBI says Alhusseini sent investors falsified bank statements that made it seem like he had assets “worth between $80 million and $200 million…. In fact, AlHusseini’s brokerage account during this period held between $2,000 and $15,000.” 

One tip that something was off: All the amounts on the fake bank statements ended in 43 cents.

The Daily Wire reports AlHusseini, who is from Saudi Arabia and was a board member for the far-left anti-Israel group Code Pink, was arrested last October and held in jail until December, when wealthy Democrat environmentalists, including Code Pink founder Jodie Evans, put up their homes as $3 million bail.

Prosecutors said AlHusseini was a flight risk as he transferred $300 million to Saudi Arabia, and put his Venice mansion in his brother’s name. A New York civil court found him in contempt of court for avoiding paying the lender he stiffed.

Meanwhile he donated to leftist Dem politicians like Cori Bush and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Source: The Daily Wire 

https://www.dailywire.com/news/california-anti-poverty-activist-and-dem-mega-donor-pleads-guilty-to-massive-carbon-credit-scam