Chelsea co-owner 'wants to sell up' as he faces investigation into multi-billion dollar loans - and has already ditched owning the LA Lakers for £9bn

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Chelsea co-owner Mark Walter has expressed an interest in selling his minority stake in the Premier League club, according to reports.

Walter, who has a 12.8 per cent minority stake in BlueCo, the consortium which owns Chelsea, has reportedly hit financial issues which have led to him selling the LA Lakers for a record £9 billion ($12.5bn). This comes less than a year after he bought a majority stake in the NBA franchise.

The US Attorney's Office is currently investigating how billions in loans extended to companies tied to Walter or his conglomerate, TWG Global, have wound up on the books of his insurance companies after passing through a third entity, according to the Wall Street Journal.

'Beyond the Lakers, Walter has also expressed an interest in selling his minority stake in the English Premier League club Chelsea, a person familiar with the matter said,' the report states.

According to Bloomberg, the FBI 'executed at least one search warrant' to seize a mobile phone. In a statement TWG Global, told the Financial Times it is 'aware of and cooperating with the investigation.'

US prosecutors are investigating companies run by Mark Walter, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and the co-owner of Chelsea

Josh Kushner (left), the brother of US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared, has bought the Lakers from Walter for a record £9bn alongside former Disney CEO Bob Iger

Josh Kushner, the brother of US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared, and former Disney chief executive Bob Iger appear to have swooped in at a convenient moment for Walter, and the deal for the Lakers is set to be the highest price ever paid for any sports team.

Walter, 66, made his money as one of the founders of bond manager and investment bank Guggenheim Partners in 1999. Beyond Chelsea, Ligue One side Strasbourg, which is also owned by BlueCo, and the LA Lakers, Walter also owns a stake in the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, is the majority owner of the Los Angeles Sparks women's basketball team, and owns North America's top-level professional women's ice hockey league.

Walter became a minority owner of Chelsea as part of the consortium led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital that completed the takeover of the club in 2022. Walter and Boehly both have a 12.8 per cent minority stake in the club, while Behdad Eghbali, who is co-founder of Clearlake, owns a majority 61.5 per cent.

Walter bought his LA Lakers share, reportedly worth an estimated £7.45bn ($10bn), a previous record, from the Buss family in October 2025.

He said: 'Owning the Los Angeles Lakers has been one of the great honours of my life.

'It has been an extraordinary investment, but what I will carry with me is the community, the fans, and a city that treats this team as family.'

The deal involving Kushner comes after he was part of the recent controversy surrounding FIFA president Gianni Infantino and an aborted plan to sell off stakes in the governing body's competitions to private investors.

Thrive Eternal, an American venture capital firm founded by Kushner, was expected to lead the proposed investor group for the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal.