Cadillac owner breaks silence on shock F1 team sale claims

Cadillac owner breaks silence on shock F1 team sale claims

Mark Walter’s TWG Global insists there has been “no fraud,” the Los Angeles Dodgers are not for sale and the Cadillac Formula 1 team is not being shopped, as federal…

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Cadillac has been on the Formula 1 grid for barely half a season, and its owner is now battling to convince the paddock it will still be there next year.

TWG Global, the sports and investment holding company run by Mark Walter, issued a lengthy statement on Wednesday rejecting fraud allegations that have swirled around the billionaire’s empire for weeks. It also insisted neither the Dodgers nor the Cadillac F1 project were for sale.

“Over the past several weeks, multipronged attacks against TWG have been advanced by unnamed sources with self-serving interests that have been reported in the media,” the company said. “Despite what has been reported, there has been no fraud.”

TWG went further on the question of harm.

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“There is no victim here. No one has been harmed, and no one has claimed they were harmed.”

What federal investigators are examining

Federal prosecutors at the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Delaware Department of Insurance are all examining transactions between Walter’s insurance companies and other parts of his empire. The core question, according to Bloomberg, is whether private credit investments held by Delaware Life and Clear Spring Life were improperly categorized as unaffiliated assets when they were in fact related-party lending.

TWG said it “is committed to working with the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve their inquiries,” and said its Group 1001 insurance arm had already presented a plan to address the concerns raised.

No charges have been filed.

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The Dutch Grand Prix denial

The pressure on the Formula 1 side spiked a week earlier at Zandvoort. TWG Motorsports issued its own statement ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix, telling teams and drivers that the newest constructor on the 2026 grid was staying put.

“TWG is not considering a sale of the Cadillac team or any other part of TWG Motorsport,” the group said.

Cadillac is the 11th team on the F1 grid this year, having reached the championship only after TWG acquired Andretti Global in 2024 and cleared the final hurdles with the FIA and Formula One Management. New team principal Marcin Budkowski, who replaced Graeme Lowdon a week before the sale denial, insisted the ownership drama had not touched the racing side. There was, he told reporters, “absolutely no discussion” about the federal investigation inside the team.

Walter’s shrinking portfolio

The sale speculation was not manufactured out of nothing. Walter agreed to sell his controlling stake in the Los Angeles Lakers at a reported $12.5 billion valuation, roughly a year after buying the franchise from the Buss family for $10 billion, and he is in talks to offload his 12.8% share of Chelsea FC to majority owner Clearlake Capital.

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TWG pushed back on the idea that a fire sale was under way, saying it was “not looking to sell its sports assets at ‘fire sale’ prices to raise capital for its insurance operations.”

The Dodgers denial was blunter still.

“The team is not being sold and no sale process has been initiated,” the statement said, adding that any claim the club had been “acquired or have been funded improperly is false and not supported by the facts.”

Cadillac’s next race is the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on 6 September.

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