New Delhi, Aug. 13 -- LOS ANGELES - Three days. That is how long it took for the Los Angeles Lakers to change hands for the second time in 14 months. Josh Kushner and Bob Iger agreed Wednesday to purchase the franchise from Mark Walter for $12.5 billion, a price that no professional sports team has ever commanded and one that Walter accepted with unusual speed for a transaction of that magnitude.

The urgency was not accidental. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan, working alongside the FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission, are investigating Guggenheim Partners, Walter's financial conglomerate, in connection with roughly $16 billion in loans extended through related entities to companies in which Walter held interests. Bloomberg fi...