Climate startup Aspiration Partners, which boasted a roster of celebrity backers and arranged carbon credits for Meta Platforms, Microsoft and other large companies, filed for bankruptcy weeks after its co-founder was arrested on fraud charges.
CTN Holdings, as the company is now known, has about $170 million in debt. The goal of the bankruptcy is to sell its assets as quickly as possible in order to repay creditors, chief restructuring officer Miles Staglik said in a court filing. The pool of potential bidders is small and the nature of the CTN’s ventures will likely require more cash and “long term horizons before any potential value could be realized for creditors,” Staglik said.
The bankruptcy was filed after co-founder Joseph Sanberg was charged by federal prosecutors with conspiring to defraud two investor funds of at least $145 million, according to a U.S. Department of Justice announcement earlier this month. The charges involve his personal conduct and don’t implicate CTN or its affiliates “in any criminal activity,” said Staglik, a managing director at CR3 Partners that’s been hired as CTN’s restructuring adviser.
CTN and several affiliates, including Catona Climate Solutions, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sunday night with plans to borrow $4 million in order to fund its insolvency case. The company plans to auction its assets within the next 45 days, according to court records.
The company’s current leadership and employees were unaware of, and are victims of, Sanberg’s alleged conduct, Staglik said. Sanberg “no longer holds any positions or roles with the Debtors and is no longer involved in any capacity with the Debtors’ operations,” he said.
Still, the criminal proceeding against Sanberg “has adversely impacted the Debtors’ ability to find replacement capital for immediate operational needs,” Staglik said. CTN said in court papers that it has lined up Chapter 11 financing in order to fund its operations as it attempts to sell its assets.
“Mr. Sanberg has pleaded not guilty and we look forward to vigorously defending him,” his attorney Marc Mukasey said Monday.
CTN’s largest unsecured creditor is the National Basketball Association’s Los Angeles Clippers and Kia Forum, both owned by Steven Ballmer. Aspiration’s backers included Ballmer, whose Clippers and Kia Forum hold $40 million in unsecured claims for “contracted carbon credits” and “carbon credit value, according to the bankruptcy petition.
Bloomberg’s Benjamin Elgin contributed.
