--- title: Steve Ballmer blasts founder he backed who pleaded... description: Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer publicly condemned Joseph Sanberg, co-founder of green fintech startup Aspiration Partners, ahead of Sanberg's sentencing... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/steve-ballmer-blasts-founder-he-backed-who-pleaded-guilty-to-fraud-i-was-duped-and-feel-silly--fgjd1jrst twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Steve Ballmer blasts founder he backed who pleaded guilty to fraud: ‘I was duped and feel silly’ | daily.dev og:description: Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer publicly condemned Joseph Sanberg, co-founder of green fintech startup Aspiration Partners, ahead of Sanberg's sentencing... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/steve-ballmer-blasts-founder-he-backed-who-pleaded-guilty-to-fraud-i-was-duped-and-feel-silly--fgjd1jrst og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/fgJd1jrSt.png og:image:alt: Steve Ballmer blasts founder he backed who pleaded guilty to fraud: ‘I was duped and feel silly’ og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Steve Ballmer blasts founder he backed who pleaded guilty to fraud: ‘I was duped and feel silly’ **[TechCrunch](https://daily.dev/sources/tc)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer publicly condemned Joseph Sanberg, co-founder of green fintech startup Aspiration Partners, ahead of Sanberg's sentencing for wire fraud. Ballmer revealed he lost his entire $60 million investment after Sanberg pleaded guilty to fabricating financial documents, including a fake letter claiming $250 million in cash when the company had less than $1 million. Beyond financial losses, Ballmer says his reputation has suffered, he's been named in lawsuits, and the NBA is investigating salary cap allegations tied to the Clippers' sponsorship deal with Aspiration. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Nadella feared Microsoft would become 'the next IBM' as $92B OpenAI return projection revealed at trial](https://daily.dev/posts/nadella-feared-microsoft-would-become-the-next-ibm-as-92b-openai-return-projection-revealed-at-tr-u0db6mowc) · The Next Web · 13 upvotes · 2 comments - [Google moonshot spinout SandboxAQ claims an ex-exec is attempting ‘extortion’](https://daily.dev/posts/google-moonshot-spinout-sandboxaq-claims-an-ex-exec-is-attempting-extortion--0xq0lmbo8) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Steven Sinofsky sought Epstein's advice on exiting Microsoft](https://daily.dev/posts/steven-sinofsky-sought-epstein-s-advice-on-exiting-microsoft-5w7vjq2v8) · The Register · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Sam Altman denies betraying Elon Musk](https://daily.dev/posts/sam-altman-denies-betraying-elon-musk-dn8m1ommt) · TechCentral · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#venture-capital](https://daily.dev/tags/venture-capital), [#fintech](https://daily.dev/tags/fintech) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/steve-ballmer-blasts-founder-he-backed-who-pleaded-guilty-to-fraud-i-was-duped-and-feel-silly--fgjd1jrst) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Steve Ballmer blasts founder he backed who pleaded guilty to fraud: ‘I was duped and feel silly’","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/steve-ballmer-blasts-founder-he-backed-who-pleaded-guilty-to-fraud-i-was-duped-and-feel-silly--fgjd1jrst","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/steve-ballmer-blasts-founder-he-backed-who-pleaded-guilty-to-fraud-i-was-duped-and-feel-silly--fgjd1jrst"},"datePublished":"2026-04-24T23:37:07.306Z","dateModified":"2026-04-25T00:18:20.111Z","description":"Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer publicly condemned Joseph Sanberg, co-founder of green fintech startup Aspiration Partners, ahead of Sanberg's sentencing...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/4ee07850c492ed33af6143ab46bbe1b6?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/4ee07850c492ed33af6143ab46bbe1b6?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"TechCrunch","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TechCrunch","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tc","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tc"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/steve-ballmer-blasts-founder-he-backed-who-pleaded-guilty-to-fraud-i-was-duped-and-feel-silly--fgjd1jrst","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"venture-capital,fintech","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TechCrunch","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tc"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Steve Ballmer blasts founder he backed who pleaded guilty to fraud: ‘I was duped and feel silly’"}]} ```