Billionaire Magic Johnson-backed insurer’s $2.3bn Walter tie

Amistad Financial Group, an insurance holding company in which American billionaire Magic Johnson holds a minority stake, lent about $2.3 billion to companies connected to Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter this year, as federal investigators examined how Walter’s business empire borrowed from insurers.

Amistad and its subsidiaries lent about $1.26 billion directly to Walter’s companies between March and June 2026. Another $1.06 billion went to intermediaries that had previously helped channel loans to his businesses. Two Amistad units, EquiTrust Life Insurance Co. and Heritage Life Insurance Co., provided much of the money. Some of the loans went to businesses tied to Walter’s stake in online car seller Carvana and to his investment in the Billie Jean King Cup, the women’s international tennis team competition.

Johnson, the former Los Angeles Lakers star, is a minority shareholder and a member of Amistad’s board. He does not sit on the company’s three-person executive committee, and there is no indication that he took part in or knew about the lending decisions. Neither Johnson nor Amistad has been accused of wrongdoing.

What investigators are examining

Federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission are looking at whether Walter, the chief executive of investment firm Guggenheim Partners, or businesses he controls hid financial ties while borrowing billions of dollars from his insurance companies. Those insurers, Delaware Life Insurance Co. and Clear Spring Life and Annuity Co., sit under his holding company Group 1001. The inquiry followed a whistleblower complaint that the insurers had not properly disclosed private loans that backed other parts of his empire.

At issue is whether more than $20 billion in financing from the insurers should have been reported as transactions with affiliated companies. Walter’s insurers had about $24 billion invested in his affiliated businesses, close to 45% of their total invested assets.

In August, investigators were reported to be focusing on four firms that acted as go-betweens on loans from Walter’s insurers to other parts of his business empire. Amistad was one of them, alongside Miami-based ABS Capital, Chicago commercial real estate broker Bradford Allen and Hudson Trading. None of them has been charged.

Walter has not been charged either. TWG Global, his holding company, has called the allegations “false and not supported by the facts” and said it acted in good faith. “There is no victim here,” TWG said in August. “No one has been harmed, and no one has claimed they were harmed.”

A long partnership

Johnson and Walter have done business together for more than a decade. Johnson was part of Guggenheim Baseball Management, the Walter-led group that bought the Dodgers in 2012 for $2.15 billion, then a record for a sports team. The two men also bought the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women’s National Basketball Association in 2014.

In 2015, Johnson’s company bought control of EquiTrust, an Iowa-based life insurer and annuity seller, from Guggenheim Partners. Amistad acquired EquiTrust in 2025 in a deal largely financed with debt. Eric Holoman, a longtime Johnson business partner and former president of Magic Johnson Enterprises, is Amistad’s managing founder and EquiTrust’s chief executive. Former majority owners of EquiTrust kept minority stakes in Amistad, and no single shareholder owns more than 10%.

Johnson has spoken warmly about the partnership. “Part of my secret sauce was to align myself with great partners like Mark Walter,” he said at the Milken Institute Global Conference in 2024.

Walter has been raising cash to cut the debt his businesses owe to his insurers, after credit rating agencies raised concerns. In August, he agreed to sell his controlling stake in the Lakers for $12.5 billion to a group led by former Walt Disney Co. chief Bob Iger and investor Josh Kushner.

Johnson, 67, won five championships with the Lakers in the 1980s and built a second career in business after retiring. His Magic Johnson Enterprises has invested in insurance, real estate, food service and sports, and he is also a part-owner of the Washington Commanders of the National Football League.