Feds Open Criminal Probe Into Clippers Payments

Federal prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into the Los Angeles Clippers over allegations the team circumvented the NBA's salary cap to compensate star forward Kawhi Leonard, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

The Justice Department is investigating whether the Clippers used under-the-table payments to get around the NBA's salary cap in its dealings with Leonard, according to The New York Times.

The inquiry is being handled by the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn and is in its earliest stages, the Times reported, leaving it unclear whether criminal charges will follow.

It lands days after the NBA punished the franchise by stripping it of five first-round draft picks, the Daily Mail reported.

What Investigators Are Looking At

The allegation at the center of the case is that money reached Leonard outside his NBA contract — payments that would have let the Clippers exceed the league's salary cap, according to reporting by the Times, the New York Post and the Daily Mail.

No charges have been filed, and the sources reporting the investigation describe it as at the beginning stages.