Aspiration’s Joe Sanberg arrested

Ibrahim AlHusseini has signed a plea agreement.

Joe Sanberg, the co-founder and largest shareholder of Aspiration Partners, Inc., was arrested on 3 March 2025. He is accused of conspiring to defraud two investor funds of about US$145 million.

Aspiration started off as a banking operation but moved to selling carbon credits.

The company signed a series of deals including with the Los Angeles Clippers, the IMF’s Carbon Opportunities Fund, and in 2023 Meta agreed to buy 6.75 million carbon credits from Aspiration.

But in January 2024, Aspiration faced an investigation from the Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission about the quality of the carbon credits it was selling.

Ibrahim AlHusseini arrested

Ibrahim AlHusseini was an Aspiration board member and investor in the company. On 7 October 2024, AlHusseini was arrested on a criminal complaint. On 13 November 2024, he was released on US$3 million bail.

A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California states that the criminal complaint against AlHusseini “was previously dismissed to facilitate his cooperation in the prosecution of others, including Sanberg”.

On 21 January 2025, another case against AlHusseini was filed. On 7 February 2025, AlHusseini signed a plea agreement, which was unsealed on 3 March 2025. In the plea agreement he admitted to receiving about US$12.3 million in payments from the scheme.

AlHusseini’s sentencing is scheduled for 29 September 2025.

Acting US Attorney Joseph McNally said,

“Our prosecutors and law enforcement partners have worked methodically to secure a guilty plea from one of the main offenders in this case and have now charged another member of the conspiracy. We will continue to ensure that markets and businesses receive an honest and level playing field in which to operate.”

According to the complaint against Sanberg and AlHusseini’s plea agreement, Sanberg obtained US$145 million in loans. These were secured by AlHusseini who did not have enough money to cover the loans if Sanberg defaulted.

Sanberg knew that AlHusseini did not have enough money to secure the loans.

Sanberg and AlHusseini hired a graphic designed in Lebanon to create fake brokerage account and bank account statements that inflated AlHusseini’ s financial assets by between about US$80 million and US$200 million.

Sanberg defaulted on the loan in 2022 and in 2023. The collateral for the loan were shares in Aspiration that AlHusseini was supposed to buy if Sanberg defaulted. AlHusseini did not buy the shares.

According to the plea agreement, AlHusseini was acting at Sanberg’s direction when he “made untrue statements” about his personal wealth.

The two men face a maximum of 20 years in prison if found guilty.