Steve Ballmer's Victim Impact, the Man Who Prosecuted Aspiration and the Abacus of Incarceration: Kawhi-Gate, Part X
Pablo Torre Finds Out
Pablo Torre
4.7 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 5 May 2026
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As the Clippers await punishment, their owner is big mad at Pablo — and appears worried about what Aspiration's founder might have told the NBA. So Pablo and David Samson (finally) sit down with a special guest: Lou Manzo, the former DOJ prosecutor who investigated this whole tree-planting fraud in the first place, to go inside the courtroom, comb through footnotes and focus on the end game.
(Additional reporting by Anita Bennett)
Previously 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
• Subscribe to Pablo's newsletter for exclusive access, documents and invites
• Subscribe to "Nothing Personal with David Samson"
(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 do not reflect the work or editorial input of The Athletic or its journalists.)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Pablo Torre finds out. |
| 0:02.0 | I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is. |
| 0:06.6 | Who's Steve Balmer? |
| 0:08.9 | Right after this ad. |
| 0:17.2 | How tall are you, Lou? |
| 0:19.3 | I used to be 6.3, but I'm shrinking. |
| 0:21.3 | Shrinking? |
| 0:21.5 | I'm shrinking. I'm old. 41. Oh, God. Yeah, it's all falling apart. I plan on being 6-3 when I'm 61. Okay, okay. You're gonna get that leg lengthening surgery? I thought about it. Turns out it hurts. Yeah, and it doesn't work. We're not here to talk about breaking your own legs to get a couple more inches, |
| 0:39.1 | although there is certainly a metaphor in there somewhere. Turns out it hurts. And it doesn't work. We're not here to talk about breaking your own legs to get a couple more inches, |
| 0:39.1 | although there is certainly a metaphor in there somewhere for us. |
| 0:42.4 | I want to point out that, like, on screen right now, |
| 0:45.6 | David looks like a hobbit next to Lou Manzo, |
| 0:49.4 | who looks like in this half in America. |
| 0:51.6 | Because they do it just so you know, welcome to the studio. But the way they work it is, my chair never goes higher. Yes. Because it's some sort of power thing with Pablo and with the guests. They like to have it. And if you look at the picture of the three of us, it's an outrage. Lyndon Johnson did the same thing. I'm fine. And, you know, Pablo is right up there with him in terms of great Americans. |
| 1:12.4 | Our guest of honor is here, David. |
| 1:14.6 | It's rare we get a new character to introduce into this series. |
| 1:18.3 | I spend my life combing through documents, talking to all of these people that it turns out have become federal witnesses. |
| 1:25.5 | In an investigation that was started midway through 2023, and the name that |
| 1:31.0 | keeps on coming up belongs to the guy at the table with us. Welcome Lou Manzo, former DOJ prosecutor. |
| 1:38.4 | You took his call. I saw a LinkedIn message among a lot of spam. And I laughed to myself. |
| 1:45.7 | I said, is this the real Pablo Torre? |
| 1:47.5 | And here you are. |
... |
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