气候金融公司 Aspiration 联合创始人 Sanberg 同意认罪 承认诈骗逾2.48亿美元
美国司法部2025年8月21日宣布，气候金融公司 Aspiration Partners 联合创始人兼董事 Joseph Neal Sanberg 已同意就两项电汇欺诈罪认罪，检方指控其诈骗贷方与投资人、造成逾2.48亿美元损失。Sanberg 现年46岁，居住在加利福尼亚州橙县 Orange 市。
根据检方向加利福尼亚州中区联邦地区法院提交的刑事信息书，2020年至2021年间，Sanberg 与同为董事的 Ibrahim AlHusseini 以 Sanberg 持有的 Aspiration 股票作质押，向两家贷方骗取1.45亿美元贷款；AlHusseini 伪造银行与经纪账户报表，把自己的资产虚增数千万美元，为质押提供担保。
检方还指控，自2021年起，Sanberg 向贷方与投资人隐瞒自己是 Aspiration 部分收入的实际来源：他亲自招募公司和个人签署植树服务意向书，承诺每月支付数万美元，再用自己控制的实体付款，并指示员工不得联系这些客户，使公司在2021年3月至2022年11月间虚增收入。他还伪造了一封审计委员会信函，谎称公司有2.5亿美元可用现金，而当时公司可用现金不足100万美元，以此骗取更多贷款与投资。
两项电汇欺诈罪名每项最高可判20年监禁。此案由联邦调查局与美国邮政检查局调查，司法部欺诈科与加州中区联邦检察官办公室共同起诉。
代理助理司法部长 Matthew R. Galeotti 表示，此案表明司法部将追诉滥用职权、欺骗投资人的公司内部人。加州中区代理联邦检察官 Bill Essayli 说，Sanberg 自称反贫困活动人士，实际上不过是一个为自己谋利的骗子。
（来源：美国司法部）
Aspiration Co-Founder Sanberg Agrees to Plead Guilty in Fraud Scheme Topping $248 Million
On August 21, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Joseph Neal Sanberg, co-founder and director of the climate finance company Aspiration Partners, has agreed to plead guilty to two counts of wire fraud in a scheme that prosecutors say defrauded lenders and investors of more than $248 million. Sanberg, 46, lives in the city of Orange in Orange County, California.
According to a criminal information filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, from 2020 to 2021 Sanberg and fellow director Ibrahim AlHusseini used Sanberg's Aspiration shares as collateral to fraudulently obtain $145 million in loans from two lenders. AlHusseini falsified bank and brokerage statements that inflated his assets by tens of millions of dollars to back the pledges.
Prosecutors also allege that, starting in 2021, Sanberg concealed from lenders and investors that he was the source of some of Aspiration's revenue: he personally recruited companies and individuals to sign letters of intent for tree-planting services promising tens of thousands of dollars a month, paid them through entities he controlled and directed employees not to contact the "clients," inflating the company's revenue from March 2021 through November 2022. He also falsified a letter from the company's audit committee claiming Aspiration held $250 million in available cash, when the company had less than $1 million available, to obtain additional loans and investments.
Each wire fraud count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The case was investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and is being prosecuted by the Justice Department's Fraud Section together with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti said the case shows the department will pursue corporate insiders who abuse their positions to deceive investors. Bill Essayli, the acting U.S. attorney for the Central District, said Sanberg, a self-described anti-poverty activist, "was merely a fraudster looking out for himself."
(Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
来源：美国司法部
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：图：位于加利福尼亚州洛杉矶市市中心的美国春街联邦法院大楼，本案由其所属的加州中区联邦地区法院审理。Busition 摄，CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。/ Photo: The Spring Street U.S. Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles, California, part of the Central District of California, where this case is being heard. Photo by Busition, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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