Breaking down Pablo Torre's investigation of Dodgers, Mark Walter and Magic Johnson

As much as Los Angeles Dodgers president Stan Kasten would like to suggest otherwise, owner Mark Walter's current legal situation and speculation as to its potential effect on the team aren't going anywhere.

Walter is currently under investigation by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission for potential fraud in the failure to disclose affiliated transactions between multiple Walter-owned holdings.

He's already sold the Los Angeles Lakers and is seeking to sell his shares in the English Premier League's Chelsea FC. He reportedly attempted to sell the Dodgers' and Lakers' incredibly lucrative local broadcasting contracts with Charter Communications for a lump sum.

Sports journalist Pablo Torre is the latest to drop yet more investigative bombs, on his latest episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out alongside business news outlet Hunterbrook Media, which implicates basketball legend and Dodgers co-owner Magic Johnson and friend Eric Holoman.

When Walter sold the Lakers after just about a year of ownership, Kasten insisted that the Dodgers were not for sale. He said it was a Lakers story, not a Dodgers story. Torre's reporting suggests otherwise.

What does Pablo Torre's new investigation in Dodgers, Mark Walter mean for LA?

The key here is the Dodgers' broadcasting rights. It has been public, but not necessarily well-known knowledge, that their revenue share doesn't quite match up to the full valuation of their local TV revenue, thanks to an agreement between MLB and former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt when McCourt was in the process of selling the team.

After Walter bought the Dodgers in 2012, he sold TV rights initially evaluated at $3 billion to Time Warner Cable for $8.35 million. At the same time that deal was starting to take effect, Walter-owned American Media Productions reportedly received a $350 million loan from Walter-owned life insurer EquiTrust. AMP's only product is SportsNet LA.

The Time Warner Cable executive who facilitated the deal with Walter and his Guggenheim Partners, David Rone, is now an executive at Guggenheim. The way that Johnson enters the picture is even more damning: he was basically gifted EquiTrust by his friend Walter. This catapulted Johnson into fully-fledged billionaire status.

His close friend and business partner Holoman was named managing partner at EquiTrust, which was sold to Amistad Financial Group in 2025, where Holoman is managing founder.

Between initial reporting and Torre's new investigation, there's a clear theme here. Walter allegedly used insurance money, invested by everyday non-billionaires, to prop up his own ventures without disclosing to insured parties. But not he might not have been the only beneficiary; he took his friends along for the ride as well. It's one big closed loop.

The Dodgers, Walter has reiterated, are not for sale. His shocking spending as of late suggests that he would do anything to keep him from selling the team. But there may come a point where he has not choice but to do so.

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