TWG denies Cadillac F1 sale as CEO Mark Walter faces US fraud investigation

TWG, the company that operates General Motors’ Formula 1 entry, denied on Thursday at the Dutch Grand Prix that the Cadillac team is for sale — a statement prompted by growing speculation linked to a federal investigation into its billionaire CEO, Mark Walter.

Walter is currently under scrutiny from both the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission over an alleged fraud and cover-up scheme at three of his insurance companies: Delaware Life, Clear Spring, and EquiTrust. Investigators are examining a network of undisclosed “self-loans” — estimated at between $16 billion and $20 billion — that were allegedly channelled from those insurance firms into businesses connected to Walter himself, routed through intermediary companies and a complex web of limited liability companies to avoid regulatory oversight.

In the United States, related companies owned by the same individual may legally lend money to one another, but such transactions must be declared to regulators to protect customer solvency. The investigation centres on whether those disclosure requirements were met.

The scrutiny has triggered a series of asset moves by Walter. He recently sold his stake in the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers — just one year after acquiring it — and reports in the US suggest he is weighing the sale of shares in other sports ventures, including Premier League club Chelsea, MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers, Andretti Autosport, and Cadillac F1. Those disposals are said to be aimed at raising liquidity to address the investigation.

Cadillac F1 team CEO Dan Towriss was absent from Zandvoort this weekend — the first race weekend under new team principal Marcin Budkowski — as he was attending the IndyCar race in Washington D.C., an event that also featured US President Donald Trump.

TWG acquired Andretti Global in 2024 after purchasing Michael Andretti’s stake in the operation, a transaction that proved pivotal in securing approval from the FIA, Formula 1, and the existing ten constructors for Cadillac to join the grid as the 11th team from the 2026 season.

The team’s denial at Zandvoort is the clearest public signal yet that, whatever the outcome of the investigation into Walter, Cadillac intends to press ahead with its F1 project.