The FBI seized the phones of billionaire Mark Walter and a top Guggenheim Investments executive last year as federal prosecutors investigated businesses in his sprawling financial empire — months before he struck a $12.5 billion deal to sell the Los Angeles Lakers to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger.
Agents took the phone of Guggenheim Investments President Dina DiLorenzo in September on the same day they seized Walter’s phone and laptop, according to the Financial Times, citing people familiar with the probe.
The seizures indicate that federal scrutiny extended beyond Walter-controlled insurance companies — which previously disclosed subpoenas from the US attorney’s office in Manhattan and the Securities and Exchange Commission — and reached Guggenheim, the $260 billion asset-management giant Walter leads as chief executive.
The news comes as authorities have been examining accounting and transactions involving businesses controlled by Walter, including Guggenheim and insurance companies he controls, according to reports.
Prosecutors focused on Guggenheim Investments’ accounting for revenue tied to its private investments business, according to the FT.
The report did not say Walter or DiLorenzo has been charged with wrongdoing, and said it was unclear what stage the investigations has reached.
The Post has sought comment from Guggenheim Investments and the Justice Department.
Asked about the seizure of DiLorenzo’s phone and scrutiny of Guggenheim Investments, the company told FT that auditors “have issued unqualified opinions” for the 2024 and 2025 consolidated financial statements of a subsidiary that owns Guggenheim Private Investments.
DiLorenzo, who has worked at the company for more than two decades, helped establish its private investments business and rose through the firm with Walter as a key ally, according to current and former colleagues cited by the FT.
She was named co-president in 2021 and eventually came to oversee Guggenheim’s investment arm.
Walter, who founded Guggenheim in 1999 after combining his investment firm with an operation managing part of the Guggenheim family fortune, sits atop a web of financial and sports holdings.
He serves as chief executive of both Guggenheim Partners and TWG Group, which has a stake in Guggenheim Partners, according to the FT.
The billionaire’s insurance companies, including Delaware Life and Clear Spring Life and Annuity, disclosed in June that they held more than $20 billion in investments in affiliated entities that they had previously classified as unaffiliated.
The insurers are now seeking to sell or restructure some of those holdings to reduce their percentage of related-party investments.
Rob Camacho, a Blackstone veteran recruited to Walter’s businesses two years ago, is leading the cleanup effort at the insurers and efforts to sell TWG assets to raise cash for them, according to the FT.
In the midst of the reported probe, Walter on Wednesday announced a deal to sell the Lakers to a group led by Kushner and Iger that values the storied NBA franchise at a record $12.5 billion.
Walter had taken majority control of the Lakers in 2025 after he and longtime business partner Todd Boehly bought a 27% stake in the team from AEG in 2021.
The Lakers have little significant exposure to Walter’s insurers, but proceeds from the sale could help TWG repay some of the insurers’ affiliate loans, according to the FT.
The latest scrutiny adds to a history of regulatory headaches at Guggenheim under Walter.
In 2015, Guggenheim Partners Investment Management paid $20 million to settle SEC charges that included failing to disclose a $50 million loan made by an advisory client to an unnamed senior Guggenheim executive, as well as improper fees and compliance failures.
The SEC did not identify Walter as the executive who received the loan.
A separate SEC investigation reported in 2018 examined transactions involving an $85 million Malibu property co-owned by Walter and other dealings involving a firm run by former Guggenheim managers.
That investigation ended in 2019 without a penalty, according to Forbes.
