The latest twist in the strange saga that is Lonzo Ball’s apparent breakup with Big Baller Brand came on Tuesday, when the Los Angeles Lakers’ second-year guard filed a lawsuit against the company’s co-founder, Alan Foster. Ball had previously cut ties with Foster regarding missing money, which appears to be at the center of this lawsuit.
The suit was filed on Tuesday night in Los Angeles, per Ramona Shelburne of ESPN, and alleges that Foster “conspired to embezzle millions of dollars and then divert those funds for his personal use, including to acquire assets in Ethiopia.” The number of allegations against Foster are quite stunning — one thing that pops up, for example, is that Foster allegedly convinced Ball to start his own company and make his own merchandise as opposed to signing with a major sneaker company out of college.
Via ESPN:
In court documents obtained by ESPN, which were filed electronically on Tuesday night in Los Angeles Superior Court and expected to be processed Wednesday morning, Ball alleges that “shortly after his release from prison, Foster embarked on his plan to target Ball and his family” and then “fleeced them of millions of dollars” by “creating a variety of corporate entities in which he gave himself ownership interests and managerial control.”
Foster then used those entities, the suit alleges, to “directly and indirectly funnel substantial amounts of Ball family money to himself.”
Every new detail regarding Ball’s relationship with the company coming to an end, from the Lakers wondering if their sneakers caused his ankle issues to getting a BBB tattoo covered up on his arm, gets a little more sad, and this is no different. Hopefully whatever went down between Ball, his family, and Foster can get resolved quickly, and Los Angeles’ 21-year-old guard can move on with his life sooner rather than later.
