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Pablo Torre Finds Out: INVESTIGATION: Before Mark Walter sold the Lakers, he bought the Dodgers. Then came $350M via Magic Johnson — and hidden deals with each other. "Magic Johnson helped him out with the Dodgers deal," an insider reveals. "They're trying to...put him on the map as a billionaire." And as it pertains to Magic Johnson, what is alleged here, and is what is being alleged illegal? Pablo Torre: What we are reporting is that Magic Johnson was the key aspect of how Mark Walter wound up loaning himself more than $300 million to enable the purchase of the Dodgers for a record price. And the reason I have been focusing on this is because Magic Johnson became a billionaire because of an insurance company called EquiTrust from his good friend and fellow Dodgers co-owner Mark Walter. But when Mark Walter needed to loan himself that more than $300 million, he also made an announcement that I'm selling this thing to Magic. And then, when he went and did it, that transaction had not yet closed. And so one can imagine that part of the whole deal here was, I need to be able to say that I'm not doing this Mark Walter to Mark Walter, and I need you, Magic, I need to wear you as a costume, according to my reporting, in order to avoid what would be a violation of securities law, because I'm not disclosing that this is just me and me doing a deal with myself. "If I'm taking a guess, I don't think Gillian Zucker or Lawrence Frank keep their jobs. And that's even before you get to the particular hypothetical betrayal that Ballmer might feel on the part of either of them."

pbs.org