# Mangione Expected to Plead Guilty & LA Lakers Record-Breaking Sale

An episode of [Bloomberg Law](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/277975394), 13 Aug 2026, 21 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/7c892d84-801f-4c0b-b0e9-ae2b0012ff5f/c8db2a28-1537-4a6a-9130-b4a50181057a/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=91224201-26a6-429d-ac3c-ae2b0012ff6d

Bloomberg legal reporter David Voreacos discusses an expected plea by Luigi Mangione to federal charges connected to the fatal shooting of UnitedHealth Group executive Brian Thompson. Then former federal prosecutor Marisa Darden, head of the White Collar, Government Investigations & Regulatory Practice Group at Benesch Law, discusses the record breaking $12.5 billion deal to buy the Los Angeles Lakers. June Grasso hosts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Law with June Grossel from Bloomberg Radio.
[0:08] Speaker 2: Luigi Mangioni is expected to plead guilty tomorrow to resolve
[0:13] Speaker 2: federal charges related to the fatal shooting of United Health
[0:17] Speaker 2: Group executive Brian Thompson, and prosecutors will recommend he served
[0:23] Speaker 2: life in prison. According to Bloomberg sources, Mangioni faces two
[0:28] Speaker 2: federal counts of stalking resulting in depth that carry a
[0:32] Speaker 2: potential for life in prison without parole. It wasn't clear
[0:36] Speaker 2: what charge or charges Mangioni is expected to plead guilty to,
[0:41] Speaker 2: and it's possible that a deal could still fall apart.
[0:45] Speaker 2: The twenty eight year old has been charged in both
[0:48] Speaker 2: federal and state court in New York, and his state
[0:51] Speaker 2: murder trial is set to begin September eighth. The state
[0:55] Speaker 2: charges also carry the possibility of a life sentence. Joining
[0:59] Speaker 2: me is bloom Legal reporter David Voriakis David tell us
[1:03] Speaker 2: what you know about this play deal.
[1:06] Speaker 3: Luigimngeone has a hearing scheduled for Friday morning in federal
[1:11] Speaker 3: court in Manhattan. The nature of that hearing has not
[1:16] Speaker 3: been publicly revealed, but there's a possibility that he could
[1:20] Speaker 3: plead guilty in his federal case related to the shooting
[1:25] Speaker 3: of Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan. He is charged federally
[1:32] Speaker 3: with two counts of stalking to cause the death of Thompson,
[1:36] Speaker 3: after the judge in that case dismissed a murder charge
[1:40] Speaker 3: against him. He separately faces New York state charges of
[1:46] Speaker 3: second degree murder and other crimes. So these are all
[1:51] Speaker 3: arising from the events surrounding the fatal shooting of Thompson.
[1:57] Speaker 3: Before Mangione fled, was a fugitive for five days and
[2:03] Speaker 3: was arrested later in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
[2:08] Speaker 2: The theory is that if he pleads guilty to the
[2:12] Speaker 2: federal crime, then he'll turn around and argue in state
[2:17] Speaker 2: court that double jeopardy applies.
[2:20] Speaker 3: Right. It's unclear how that's going to play out, but
[2:24] Speaker 3: his lawyers have said from the beginning that because he
[2:28] Speaker 3: faces two different prosecutions for the same events, that that
[2:33] Speaker 3: amounts to double jeopardy. Double jeopardy is not allowed through
[2:39] Speaker 3: the US Constitution and also through a New York state law.
[2:43] Speaker 3: The analysis of whether this is double jeopardy or not
[2:47] Speaker 3: is a bit complex, and it has to do with
[2:50] Speaker 3: the elements of each crime in this case, stalking and murder.
[2:56] Speaker 3: It's possible that the judge in the New York state
[2:59] Speaker 3: case may conclude that there are separate elements to this crime,
[3:05] Speaker 3: even though it's essentially the same event, and that double
[3:09] Speaker 3: jeopardy does not apply.
[3:11] Speaker 2: This strikes me as a huge gamble. He'd be agreeing
[3:16] Speaker 2: to serve time in federal prison, probably a long time
[3:20] Speaker 2: in federal prison, on the chance that a state judge
[3:23] Speaker 2: will rule that this is double jeopardy. It seems really risky.
[3:28] Speaker 3: It does seem like a gamble. He has very good lawyers.
[3:31] Speaker 3: They've done the legal analysis. It also may be his
[3:35] Speaker 3: only real option if he doesn't want to go to trial.
[3:39] Speaker 3: If he pleads guilty in federal court, he'll have to
[3:42] Speaker 3: admit what he did in open court, and prosecutors in
[3:46] Speaker 3: the New York state case can use that against him.
[3:50] Speaker 3: Assuming he goes to trial in the state.
[3:52] Speaker 2: Case, the two stalking charges. If he's pleading guilty to
[3:56] Speaker 2: two stalking charges, that could carry life in prison, which
[4:00] Speaker 2: is the top that he would get in state court anyway.
[4:03] Speaker 3: That's correct, I mean, that's what he's currently facing in
[4:06] Speaker 3: the federal case. It's unclear whether that's what he would
[4:09] Speaker 3: actually plead guilty to. Typically, in a plea deal, both
[4:14] Speaker 3: sides give up something, so it's possible that he could
[4:18] Speaker 3: plead to a reduced charge or maybe only one of
[4:21] Speaker 3: the stalking charges. It's not entirely clear what the prosecutors
[4:26] Speaker 3: are willing to give here. Since the general consensus is
[4:31] Speaker 3: the evidence against Mangeone is quite powerful. This case outraged
[4:36] Speaker 3: the public. It's gotten a lot of national attention. Originally,
[4:40] Speaker 3: the former Attorney General Pam Bondi, sought the death penalty
[4:45] Speaker 3: against Mangione, but the judge in this case dismissed the
[4:50] Speaker 3: count that could have potentially led to the death penalty
[4:52] Speaker 3: had he been convicted.
[4:54] Speaker 2: On that describe some of the evidence here that a
[4:57] Speaker 2: lot of people find overwhelming.
[5:00] Speaker 3: People have probably seen. There's a lot of video evidence
[5:03] Speaker 3: of Mangione on the morning of the shooting. He's been
[5:08] Speaker 3: captured on videotape bicycling through New York City in a
[5:14] Speaker 3: taxi cab when he was checking into a hostel in
[5:20] Speaker 3: the Upper West Side a few days before the shooting.
[5:24] Speaker 3: That's evidence that was used in the manhunt that led
[5:29] Speaker 3: to his arrest. The police in Pennsylvania also seized his
[5:35] Speaker 3: backpack at the time of his arrest, which included a
[5:40] Speaker 3: homemade gun, a silencer, a gun magazine, and a variety
[5:48] Speaker 3: of writings by Mangione that express extreme animus towards the
[5:54] Speaker 3: healthcare system and a desire to shoot a healthcare ceo.
[5:58] Speaker 3: I mean, that's just in brief. There's a lot more
[6:01] Speaker 3: than that, but those are sort of the highlights, and
[6:04] Speaker 3: a lot of legal experts believe it's quite a powerful
[6:09] Speaker 3: case that the prosecutors have assembled, which leaves Mangione in
[6:14] Speaker 3: a difficult position to try to deny that he's the perpetrator.
[6:19] Speaker 2: There was a hearing where Mangioni's lawyers said that he
[6:23] Speaker 2: was going to use some kind of emotional distress defense
[6:28] Speaker 2: and then withdrew it.
[6:30] Speaker 3: They had initially filed court papers saying that they were
[6:34] Speaker 3: going to file an emotional disturbance defense that had been
[6:39] Speaker 3: under seal for several months. A day after it was unsealed,
[6:43] Speaker 3: the defense said they would no longer use that as
[6:46] Speaker 3: we understand it, the traditional use of that defense would
[6:51] Speaker 3: require a psychological evaluation, and by withdrawing that that is
[6:58] Speaker 3: no longer required for the defense. But it is possible
[7:02] Speaker 3: that he may use a variation of that defense should
[7:06] Speaker 3: he go to trial in state court.
[7:09] Speaker 2: He's become a folk hero to some people. He's got
[7:13] Speaker 2: admirers who show up at trial. They send him things
[7:17] Speaker 2: in the mail, very popular with a certain segment. Are
[7:22] Speaker 2: people anticipating that jury selection in the State case would
[7:26] Speaker 2: take a long time because of the prosecution trying to
[7:30] Speaker 2: filter out those people.
[7:32] Speaker 3: I think it probably is going to take a long time. Ultimately,
[7:36] Speaker 3: the judge is looking for people who can be fair
[7:39] Speaker 3: and unbiased and have an open mind. The prosecutors don't
[7:43] Speaker 3: want people who may be secretly rooting for the sort
[7:47] Speaker 3: of political arguments that Luigi Mangione has made about the
[7:53] Speaker 3: healthcare system. They want people that can judge the case
[7:57] Speaker 3: based on the evidence and not his political beliefs.
[8:02] Speaker 2: There's a huge amount of interest in this case, and
[8:05] Speaker 2: the judge is trying to deal with the press in
[8:09] Speaker 2: the case and overflow rooms and tell us about the
[8:12] Speaker 2: interest in the case.
[8:14] Speaker 3: There was some question in the statecase about whether there
[8:18] Speaker 3: would be an overflow room that would allow as many
[8:23] Speaker 3: press as possible, or whether there would be a fixed
[8:26] Speaker 3: number of media organizations that could observe the proceedings. Earlier
[8:32] Speaker 3: this week, Judge Caro ruled that there would be an
[8:34] Speaker 3: overflow room and that this was all sort of overblown
[8:39] Speaker 3: and he never intended to limit the press. He said
[8:42] Speaker 3: that there were eighty six news organizations that are trying
[8:46] Speaker 3: to cover the case, So there is a tremendous amount
[8:49] Speaker 3: of interest in how this is all going to play out.
[8:52] Speaker 3: I would also say that Mangione's followers, known as Manginistas,
[8:57] Speaker 3: consistently show up at the pre trial hearings. There's I
[9:02] Speaker 3: don't know, thirty or forty or fifty that show up
[9:05] Speaker 3: in any given hearing. He also has said in court
[9:10] Speaker 3: filings that he has thousands of supporters who have sent
[9:16] Speaker 3: him letters or some types of communications. He's raised about
[9:20] Speaker 3: a million and a half dollars toward his legal defense.
[9:24] Speaker 3: So there's clearly a ground swell of support for Mangione,
[9:29] Speaker 3: either for him personally or what his actions represent in
[9:34] Speaker 3: protests of the healthcare system in the US.
[9:37] Speaker 2: And did the defense at one point float having the
[9:41] Speaker 2: proceedings televised.
[9:44] Speaker 3: The defense did raise that possibility of having at least
[9:48] Speaker 3: some of the proceedings televised. Judge Carrow has not answered that.
[9:53] Speaker 3: It appears that that's very unlikely. If, in fact we
[9:56] Speaker 3: go to a trial in state court.
[9:58] Speaker 2: Well see what happens in court tomorrow. Thanks so much, David.
[10:02] Speaker 2: That's Bloomberg Legal reporter David Voriakis. Bob Eiger and Josh
[10:10] Speaker 2: Kushner are buying the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team from
[10:14] Speaker 2: billionaire Mark Walter for a record breaking price of twelve
[10:18] Speaker 2: point five billion dollars. According to Bloomberg sources. It's the
[10:22] Speaker 2: highest price ever for a professional sports franchise, exceeding the
[10:27] Speaker 2: nine point six billion dollars paid for the National Football
[10:30] Speaker 2: League Seattle Seahawks in July. The move comes as Walter's
[10:34] Speaker 2: sprawling investment empire is facing scrutiny from federal prosecutors. Federal
[10:40] Speaker 2: agents seized Walter's mobile phone and computer last September as
[10:45] Speaker 2: part of a wide ranging investigation. Walter's firm, TWG Global
[10:51] Speaker 2: has approached multiple investment firms about deals to raise cash
[10:55] Speaker 2: to help pay down loans on the books of its
[10:57] Speaker 2: insurers that had drawn screwtin from the Justice Department. That's
[11:02] Speaker 2: according to people familiar with the matter. Joining me is
[11:05] Speaker 2: former federal prosecutor Marissa Darden, head of the White Collar
[11:09] Speaker 2: Government Investigations and regulatory practice group at Benish Law Marissa.
[11:14] Speaker 2: This huge deal came together over weekend. Reportedly, Kushner called
[11:20] Speaker 2: Walter on Friday and the two sides hashed out in
[11:24] Speaker 2: agreement by Sunday without using investment banks. What does that
[11:29] Speaker 2: tell you?
[11:30] Speaker 4: The fact that the Walters Group didn't use investment bankers
[11:35] Speaker 4: and also didn't get competing bids suggests that he and
[11:40] Speaker 4: or his businesses are dire for cash, and if I
[11:43] Speaker 4: had been advising him as a white collar professional, I
[11:47] Speaker 4: might have advised that he needed to get liquid in
[11:49] Speaker 4: a quick order. As you and Bloomberg has previously reported,
[11:53] Speaker 4: Walters has been under the Department of Justice investigation for
[11:57] Speaker 4: insurance related issues and other, you know, sort of fraudulent
[12:01] Speaker 4: financial transactions since twenty twenty five, and that maybe a
[12:06] Speaker 4: signal that things are coming to a head there, or
[12:08] Speaker 4: that he's sort of been a desperate need for capital.
[12:11] Speaker 2: The federal prosecutors have been examining loans. There's nothing wrong
[12:15] Speaker 2: with insurers making loans to related parties, but it has
[12:19] Speaker 2: to be disclosed. Just explain what they seem to be
[12:23] Speaker 2: looking at.
[12:24] Speaker 4: Best I can tell is, you know, again, without knowing
[12:26] Speaker 4: all the intricacies and not really having a full grasp
[12:31] Speaker 4: of all the holdings. My understanding is that TITWG Global
[12:35] Speaker 4: is a holding company that they own stakes in Guggenheim,
[12:39] Speaker 4: which is his asset management broker dealer business, as well
[12:42] Speaker 4: as various other insurance companies. And as you mentioned, there's
[12:46] Speaker 4: no issue in and of itself with insurance companies or
[12:50] Speaker 4: insurance brokers like making loans or taking loans or you know,
[12:54] Speaker 4: working in that business and in that industry. But there
[12:57] Speaker 4: are specific federal guidelines that insurance are supposed to live by,
[13:03] Speaker 4: to report these, to document them clearly so that shareholders
[13:08] Speaker 4: and other investors are aware of the holdings. And I know,
[13:12] Speaker 4: or at least it's been reported that as recently as
[13:15] Speaker 4: twenty twenty five and early twenty twenty six, both of
[13:19] Speaker 4: those insurance companies that are owned by TWG Global have
[13:22] Speaker 4: had to restate billions and billions of dollars in loans
[13:26] Speaker 4: that the insurance companies had made and had not properly classified.
[13:30] Speaker 4: So I think there's some questions there about whether the
[13:33] Speaker 4: Department of Justice, the SEC and other regulators are going
[13:36] Speaker 4: to be looking to see if there was any fraudulent
[13:40] Speaker 4: responsibility there or if there was any indication that they
[13:44] Speaker 4: were trying to defraud investors and insurance premium holders about
[13:49] Speaker 4: where these loans came from or what they were doing,
[13:52] Speaker 4: or if they were making a profit.
[13:54] Speaker 2: So, as a white collar defense lawyer, what would your
[13:56] Speaker 2: advice be?
[13:58] Speaker 4: So once the Department of Justice and the sec sort
[14:02] Speaker 4: of have their tentacles into a business, the investigation can
[14:06] Speaker 4: always take interesting turns. And you know the statute of
[14:10] Speaker 4: limitations on mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, it varies,
[14:15] Speaker 4: but more or less is like somewhere around seven years
[14:17] Speaker 4: plus or minus, give or take, based on the statute.
[14:20] Speaker 4: And so the Department of Justice takes its time right
[14:23] Speaker 4: and looking at financial records, issuing subpoenas, looking at bank records,
[14:28] Speaker 4: and investigating a large international conglomerate such as the Walters' holdings.
[14:36] Speaker 4: You never know what direction they're going to take, so
[14:38] Speaker 4: legal fees rack up quickly. The amount of money that
[14:42] Speaker 4: it takes to respond to subpoenas and cooperate in an
[14:45] Speaker 4: internal federal investigation is very expensive. And then when you
[14:50] Speaker 4: ask about sort of paying off the loans, like companies
[14:53] Speaker 4: may go in hire forensic accounting services under privilege and
[14:57] Speaker 4: try to determine whether there was any wrongdoing or irregularities
[15:02] Speaker 4: in advance of the department issuing charges, so that you
[15:04] Speaker 4: could go to them proactively and say, hey, look, we've
[15:07] Speaker 4: restated our books or we've looked at this and we
[15:09] Speaker 4: believe that we've fixed or ameliorated the problem preemptively. But again,
[15:14] Speaker 4: that takes a lot of money, that takes time, resources,
[15:18] Speaker 4: and a lot of times those legal fees are not
[15:20] Speaker 4: covered under insurance premiums, or you might not want to
[15:23] Speaker 4: activate your own liability insurance for your business, and then
[15:27] Speaker 4: as a result, you're paying that out of pocket. And
[15:29] Speaker 4: if you're highly leveraged, like most billionaires are, and those
[15:34] Speaker 4: assets or those investments have to be paid, or the
[15:37] Speaker 4: investors are demanding repayment, or the market is skittish about
[15:41] Speaker 4: an asset management firm or an insurance company being under
[15:44] Speaker 4: federal indictment, they could call those loans at any time.
[15:48] Speaker 2: Does any of this put the deal to buy the
[15:51] Speaker 2: Lakers in jeopardy?
[15:52] Speaker 1: It's possible.
[15:54] Speaker 4: You know, there's always a couple of things that are
[15:56] Speaker 4: tricky when you buy such a big, you know, franchise
[16:01] Speaker 4: like this Number one, the NBA sort of has to
[16:02] Speaker 4: bless it right, And there are all kinds of clauses
[16:06] Speaker 4: sale clauses that are usually written into contracts like this,
[16:10] Speaker 4: an asset purchase agreement that says, hey, if we uncover
[16:13] Speaker 4: any financial mismanagement or wrongdoing that may negate the deal.
[16:18] Speaker 4: There are safe harbors that might be contemplated statutorily, both
[16:22] Speaker 4: state and federal, so that if the purchaser were to
[16:25] Speaker 4: determine that there have been some mismanagement of funds within
[16:29] Speaker 4: the Lakers organization, that that could negate the deal. But
[16:33] Speaker 4: as a general matter, you know, I think if people
[16:36] Speaker 4: feel like this is a legitimate offer, it's for two
[16:40] Speaker 4: billion dollars or plus or minus more than what he
[16:42] Speaker 4: paid for it two years ago, and they you know,
[16:46] Speaker 4: the NBA doesn't have an issue with it, and they
[16:48] Speaker 4: otherwise meet the requirements of an owner, I don't see
[16:51] Speaker 4: this being an impediment.
[16:53] Speaker 2: When he bought the Lakers just over a year ago,
[16:57] Speaker 2: the deal was valued at ten billion, and that was
[16:59] Speaker 2: the large ever in the control sale of a sports franchise.
[17:03] Speaker 2: Now it's a record price again for US sports franchise.
[17:09] Speaker 2: Our investors really sort of hooked on the big name franchises.
[17:15] Speaker 2: Just this week, Apollo Global Management agreed to invest two
[17:19] Speaker 2: point six billion in the Yankees, and then you have
[17:21] Speaker 2: the English soccer team and talks to sell a stake
[17:24] Speaker 2: to Jeff Bezos. Billionaires want sports franchises for a lot
[17:29] Speaker 2: of different reasons.
[17:31] Speaker 1: It's a really interesting question.
[17:33] Speaker 4: And actually the NFL, I think, is the last of
[17:35] Speaker 4: the big leagues to authorize private equity and investment group
[17:39] Speaker 4: ownership and teams.
[17:41] Speaker 1: And I think for a long time all of those.
[17:44] Speaker 4: Major sports organizations were very skittish about this for the
[17:48] Speaker 4: obvious reasons, right like, how do you go about.
[17:50] Speaker 1: Vetting those organizations?
[17:53] Speaker 4: Are there opportunities for illicit transactions or other mismanagement?
[17:59] Speaker 1: That is, and from an individual owner and owner group.
[18:02] Speaker 4: Historically, particularly in the NFL less so and maybe the
[18:05] Speaker 4: NBA and more so in the MLB, your typical owner
[18:09] Speaker 4: was like an individual, like one guy who got rich
[18:14] Speaker 4: on something else and invested their money in a franchise
[18:17] Speaker 4: because they loved the sport, because they were excited about
[18:20] Speaker 4: the value proposition, but mostly because of their desire to
[18:24] Speaker 4: be in the game and to live vicariously through the
[18:28] Speaker 4: players in something that they really love. And over time,
[18:32] Speaker 4: more and more investors and more and more sort of
[18:35] Speaker 4: neu vau Riche have learned that it's not just to
[18:38] Speaker 4: be around the sport and the sort of sexiness of
[18:41] Speaker 4: all that, but it's also this huge investment opportunity that
[18:45] Speaker 4: can make a huge return. Because the NFL has exponentially
[18:49] Speaker 4: grown over the last twenty five years, the NBA is
[18:53] Speaker 4: making record dollars and selling out record ticket numbers, and
[18:57] Speaker 4: so I think it was sort of inevitable that billionaire
[18:59] Speaker 4: asset classes and high profile investment groups and private equity
[19:04] Speaker 4: management ownership groups were going to come and see the
[19:08] Speaker 4: bottom line, our live potential of some something that's so
[19:12] Speaker 4: huge and that keeps its cachet year over year.
[19:15] Speaker 2: I'm just amazed that this came together over a weekend.
[19:19] Speaker 4: I'm just really curious to see what the response is
[19:23] Speaker 4: from Kushner and Iiger, who the potential purchasers of the
[19:28] Speaker 4: Lakers are. Like, these are obviously very savvy investors. People
[19:32] Speaker 4: maybe know Bob Vikers, Disney and Josh Kushner has made
[19:36] Speaker 4: a huge fortune on his own being part of the
[19:38] Speaker 4: Kushner family, but also you know, having his own fund,
[19:42] Speaker 4: his own private equity shop that he has made investments
[19:45] Speaker 4: in other sports teams and the scrutiny on this, I
[19:48] Speaker 4: think is going to be very high, So it'll be
[19:49] Speaker 4: very interesting to see how they respond to all the
[19:52] Speaker 4: media attentions.
[19:53] Speaker 1: And how they can justify their evaluation of the offer.
[19:57] Speaker 4: Because if you don't have competing bids or a competitive option,
[20:00] Speaker 4: what due diligence did they do to actually determine a
[20:03] Speaker 4: fair market value of the Lakers in twenty twenty six?
[20:06] Speaker 2: A lot of questions yet, Thanks so much, Marissa. That's
[20:10] Speaker 2: Marissa Darden, head of the White Collar Government Investigations and
[20:14] Speaker 2: Regulatory Practice Group at Banish Law. And that's it for
[20:18] Speaker 2: this edition of The Bloomberg Law Show. Remember you can
[20:21] Speaker 2: always get the latest legal news on our Bloomberg Law Podcast.
[20:24] Speaker 2: You can find them on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and at
[20:28] Speaker 2: www dot Bloomberg dot com, slash podcast, slash Law, And
[20:33] Speaker 2: remember to tune into The Bloomberg Law Show every weeknight
[20:36] Speaker 2: at ten pm Wall Street Time. I'm Junie Grosso and
[20:39] Speaker 2: you're listening to Bloomberg

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