Climate Finance Unicorn Co-Founder Arrested on Fraud Charges
Joseph Sanberg, the co-founder of Aspiration Partners Inc., a climate-finance startup that was once valued at over $2 billion, was arrested on fraud charges on Monday.
Sanberg helped build Aspiration Partners into a high-flying climate startup, which offered green banking products to consumers and sustainability services, like tree planting, to businesses. The Los Angeles-based firm boasted a roster of celebrity backers, including Steve Ballmer, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey Jr., and Cindy Crawford, as it sought to go public in 2021.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Senator Martin Heinrich calls for Torrance County ICE detention facility to be closed
Jun. 9—New Mexico's senior senator is calling for a New Mexico-based Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility to be closed, after his congressional staff observed troubling conditions during a visit in late May. "For years, detainees have been denied adequate access to legal services and medical care while being subjected to inhumane living conditions and continued instances of physical abuse," Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., wrote to Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons in a letter Thursday. The Torrance County Detention Facility is owned and operated by CoreCivic in Estancia. Heinrich has repeatedly pushed for CoreCivic's contract to be terminated, including in a December 2023 letter during the Biden administration. "CoreCivic is committed to providing safe, humane and appropriate care for the people in our facilities," CoreCivic spokesman Brian Todd said in a statement, pointing to the facility's overall "good" ratings in its 2024 and 2025 ICE Office of Detention Oversight audits. As the Trump administration has been trying to increase deportations, members of Congress have been attempting to conduct oversight of ICE detention centers around the country. When New Jersey Congresswoman LaMonica McIver and other Democratic officials tried to do an oversight visit to a Newark ICE center in May, she was charged with two counts of assault after a confrontation with officers trying to arrest the Newark mayor. On May 28, Heinrich's staff members were allowed to tour one housing unit at the Torrance County facility, but were denied access to two other housing units, after they heard at least 10 detainees file complaints of abuse, and lack of access to laundry and medical services. According to Todd, detainees have daily access to sign up for medical and mental health services, there are clinics staffed with licensed health professionals and medical personnel on site at all hours. "The agent claimed that a revised ICE visitation protocol prohibited congressional staff from visiting housing units with detainees present," the letter reads. "However, the document the agent cited made no mention of limiting congressional staff visitation to empty pods, and it in fact cited to a statutory authority explicitly forbidding ICE from denying congressional staff conducting oversight access." Congressional staff members found backed-up sinks, a drain in the middle of a common area backed up with sewage water, and non-functioning tablet devices — devices that people detained by ICE use to access legal services, according to Heinrich's letter. The conditions match those described by detainees and advocates, the letter says. Maintenance staff respond quickly to plumbing issues, Todd said in a statement, and the common area drain was backed up with water after debris collected in shower drains, not with sewage. CoreCivic is committed to providing detainees with access to counsel and courts, Todd said, although he did not respond to a question about the broken tablets. TCDF Warden George Dedos confirmed that the detention facility had no water from Estancia for three days, the letter says, and was unable to answer questions about the capacity of the facilities' two back-up water tanks or describe the contingency plan for when there is another water outage, "short of the total relocation of all the detainees." "He told my staff during their visit that the water shortage had not impacted their operations, but that runs contrary to what detainees said during that same visit," Heinrich wrote. His staff were told by detainees that "water was only turned on for one hour every three days for showers, they were provided only two bottles of drinking water per day, and they were unable to flush toilets for days at a time." CoreCivic was notified on April 29 that Estancia was having a water supply issue and tried to reduce its water consumption. Drinking water and bottled water were available, Todd said, and water was provided to help flush toilets "as an added measure to reduce water consumption." The laundry services and showers were placed on a schedule, but "those services were still available to all of those in our care," according to Todd. ICE did not respond to a request for comment.
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
New Mexico Foundation's new CEO makes quite an impression
One of my tasks as the business reporter at The Santa Fe New Mexican is to keep tabs on what's happening in the state's nonprofit community, which explains why I spoke last week with Justin Kii Huenemann, the new president and CEO at the New Mexico Foundation for a profile in our June 4 edition. Justin Kii Huenemann Justin Kii Huenemann, the new president and CEO of the New Mexico Foundation, says the organization faces unique challenges and opportunities as the only statewide community foundation in New Mexico. The Santa Fe-based community foundation lists collaboration and sustainability as two key elements in its core values, and it is clear that Huenemann plans to continue emphasizing both during his tenure. Citing his upbringing on the Navajo Nation near Tsaile, Ariz., he talked about how the landscape of that area has shaped his perspective on the world as an adult. Not surprisingly, he said he tends to take the long view in his approach to managing organizations, especially those that have experienced a recent leadership void. 'The sky's not falling,' he said, describing the message he likes to convey to his new staff in those situations. Huenemann had to hit the ground running in his new position, but he nevertheless made time to spend at least an hour conversing with each member of his staff within two weeks of his arrival. He described himself as an active listener, adding that the most important job of his foundation is to avoid creating barriers for its partners. But the thing he said that impressed me the most was when he described community foundations as 'a privileged environment within a privileged sector,' a reminder to himself to remain cognizant of how different a given situation can look to someone on the outside. As someone who spent the last 10 years living just off the Navajo Nation in San Juan County, a remote and often overlooked corner of New Mexico, I felt like I understood well what he was trying to say. And I have little doubt that Huenemann's term at the foundation will be a successful one.
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Proposed RENT Ordinance aims to rein in unfair rental practices
Jun. 9—The Albuquerque City Council is set to consider sweeping new rules that would overhaul the rental process citywide, aiming to protect tenants from hidden fees, housing instability and unresponsive landlords. The bill, known as Renter's Empowerment and Neighborhood Transparency (RENT) Ordinance, would enshrine several protections around almost every part of the renting experience. The bill addresses nearly all aspects of the rental process and would impact every landlord and renter in the city. Statistics from the American Community Survey show that about 44% of households in Albuquerque rent. But it's far from guaranteed to pass. "I think that this council has proven in the past that they're not interested in helping renters very much," said Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn, who is sponsoring the bill on behalf of the mayor's office. "But recently, we did get two pieces of tenant protections passed." Those two pieces were an ordinance mandating landlords provide cooling for tenants and a bill that created a code enforcement position to respond directly to renters' issues. The bill also faces opposition from landlord advocates. "While the stated intent of this legislation may be to protect tenants, in practice, it burdens responsible landlords, increases operational and legal risk, and would discourage housing investment in Albuquerque," said Alan LaSeck, executive director of the Apartment Association of New Mexico. LaSeck went on to say the proposals ignore the realities of managing rental housing and would lead to reduced availability, higher costs and greater conflict. "Rather than fostering cooperation between tenants and owners, they threaten to drive housing providers out of the market, shrinking our housing supply, increasing rents and worsening the very problem we're trying to solve," LaSeck said. What's in the RENT Ordinance? Shanna Schultz, policy and government affairs administrator for the city, said the bill comes at a time when Albuquerque continues to grapple with a housing crisis. A 2024 Denver-based Root Policy Research report, titled "Albuquerque Region Housing Needs Assessment," found a significant shortage of units for low-income renters. The same report found that residents were spending more than a third of their monthly income on housing and that occupied units, such as apartments and single-family homes, often had more residents than rooms available. "I think we know that building more homes is essential, but that's not enough on its own. It's not the only tool in the toolkit," Schultz said. "We also need to protect the people who are already living in homes." Schultz, who authored the policy proposal, noted that the bill's transparency provisions were among its most significant changes. The RENT Ordinance would require landlords to disclose all costs of a rental agreement in plain language in their published listings. That includes anything on a background check that could disqualify an applicant, as well as minimum credit score or income requirements. "This can help renters avoid surprise charges and do things like budget more confidently, which is very important in this economy right now," Schultz said. There are several other key provisions, including those around repairs. The ordinance grants the tenant the right to arrange for necessary maintenance by a licensed and insured professional. The tenant can also deduct the cost of the repair from their rent payment or receive reimbursement from the landlord when the landlord fails to make a repair. Landlords would also be prohibited from charging fees and additional rent for companion animals, defined in the bill as typical pets not used for commercial purposes. In all, the bill makes changes to rules around security deposits, relocation assistance, the rental application process, evictions, credit reporting requirements, move-in and move-out procedures and methods of payment. It's set to go before the Land Use, Planning and Zoning Committee on June 11. If it advances, it's unlikely to go before the full council until at least August, Schultz said. "Why would landlords also be interested in this? And I think the answer to that is that clear rules reduce confusion and conflict," Schultz said.
