LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — A consortium containing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin is buying a minority stake in Premier League club Liverpool, the English soccer giant said on Friday.
Club owner Fenway Sports Group (FSG) said in a statement it entered into a “definitive agreement” for the sale to 1892 Holdings.
The investor group is led by Amit Bhatia, who is married to a daughter of Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, and has taken a stake of more than 30% in the 20-time English champion, according to Sky News. The deal reportedly values Liverpool at around $6 billion.
Boston-based FSG paid 300 million pounds ($400 million) to take over Liverpool in 2010 and also owns the Boston Red Sox. FSG said in July that it had been approached by the Bhatia-led consortium regarding a “strategic minority investment” in the club.
“As we considered this opportunity, it became clear that Amit and the consortium shared our long-term philosophy and appreciation for what makes Liverpool special,” FSG president Mike Gordon said in the statement.
It marks the first foray into soccer by Bezos, who, according to Forbes, is the fourth richest person in the world with a net worth of around $280 billion. He founded Amazon in 1994 and has been executive chairman since 2021.
Saverin is a Brazilian businessman worth around $36 billion, according to Forbes.
Bhatia, a British-Indian entrepreneur, was the co-owner of second-tier English team Queens Park Rangers for 18 years before stepping down recently.
“We are making this investment because we believe deeply in Liverpool and its leadership, and we look forward to supporting the club’s continued success for years to come,” Bhatia said in the statement.
Under the leadership of FSG and its principal owner John Henry, Liverpool ended a 30-year wait to be English champion in 2020 and added another Premier League title last year. That tied Manchester United on 20 English top-flight league championships.
The club was European champion for a sixth time — a record for an English team — in 2019.
The Premier League is one of the biggest competitions in sports, with its teams now largely owned by oil-rich gulf states or private equity.
Liverpool now has three of the richest people in the world as minority owners.
That doesn’t mean, however, that the club can simply start spending recklessly in the transfer market on new players.
That’s because the Premier League has financial rules in place to protect the competitive balance of the competition and ensure the financial sustainability of clubs.
In broad terms, a club’s on-pitch spending is related to 85% of its “football-related revenue and net profit/loss from player sales,” the Premier League says.
Instead, the difference will come in how Liverpool — already one of the top teams in world soccer — is marketed more around the world under Bezos and Saverin, especially.
The deal is likely to bring more commercial revenue into the club, thereby improving its profits.
See AP’s full soccer coverage here
FILE - Merchandise is displayed for sale ahead the English Premier League soccer match between Liverpool and Bournemouth at Anfield stadium in Liverpool, England, Saturday, March 7, 2020. (AP Photo/Jon Super, File)
FILE - Amazon founder Jeff Bezos speaks at the Vivatech fair in Paris, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva, File)
Monaco's Anis Soubeir and Liverpool's Federico Chiesa, right, in action during the pre-season friendly soccer match between Liverpool and AS Monaco in Liverpool, England, Sunday Aug. 9, 2026. (Peter Byrne/PA via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty on Friday to federal stalking charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, admitting matter-of-factly that he trailed the executive to an investor conference and gunned him down on a New York City street in 2024.
Mangione, 28, said he even used a ruse to glean information about the event, contacting the health insurance company ahead of time under the guise of being an investor at a multibillion-dollar firm.
"On the morning of Dec. 4, 2024, I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan, and he died,” Mangione told the Manhattan federal court, which he entered shackled at the feet but not handcuffed in his beige jail uniform.
Listening in the audience, Thompson's wife, Paulette, took several deep breaths and repeatedly wiped tears from her eyes.
Prosecutors plan to seek a life prison term at Mangione's sentencing, set for Dec. 18. When U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Garnett asked whether he understood that he could spend the rest of his life behind bars, Mangione answered neutrally: “Yes.”
In a statement, Thompson’s family called the plea “an important step toward justice” and noted that Mangione still faces other cases, including a New York state murder prosecution. It carries the potential for a separate long sentence.
Federal prosecutors didn’t give Mangione any deal or incentive to plead guilty, they and his lawyers said. Nor did Mangione plead guilty to avoid a potential death sentence. That possibility was taken off the table when a federal murder charge was tossed out this winter.
But after Mangione entered the plea at Friday's hastily scheduled hearing, his lawyers quickly sought to have the New York case thrown out on double jeopardy grounds. The state’s double jeopardy protections can kick in if a prior prosecution ends in a guilty plea.
“Mr. Mangione has accepted full responsibility for the death of Brian Thompson,” defense lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo said outside court, arguing that her client shouldn’t face two prosecutions over a “single tragic event.”
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is handling the state prosecution, said it remains committed to its case and would contest the defense’s efforts to shut it down.
Surveillance video of the ambush showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson, 50, from behind. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.
That detail — and revelations that Mangione's private writings lambasted health insurers as greedy, according to authorities — made the case a fulcrum for debate about the industry and made Mangione a cause célèbre for some of its critics.
A University of Pennsylvania graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, Mangione told the court Friday that he pursued Thompson “after years of enduring severe pain from a broken back and navigating the obstacles of the health insurance system.”
Friedman Agnifilo later said her client “believed that the system had failed him and destroyed his life.”
Mangione never was a UnitedHealthcare customer, according to police and the company.
“To those who idolize Luigi Mangione, I say this. Violence is not a cause. Murder is not a message. And a killer is certainly not a hero,” New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said outside court Friday.
U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald, whose office handled the federal case, added: “There can be no celebrity in assassination."
Thompson led one of the United States' largest health insurers, but he wasn't well known outside the industry. Trained as an accountant, he worked at parent company UnitedHealth Group Inc. for 20 years and became CEO of its insurance arm, UnitedHealthcare, in 2021. He and his wife had two sons, who were in high school when their father was killed.
Thompson's violent death “devastated everyone who knew and loved him,” the company said in a statement Friday, thanking law enforcement for bringing Mangione to justice.
Mangione was arrested five days after the shooting, when he was spotted at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) west of Manhattan. Police had released various images of the suspected shooter, including one showing his face as he checked into a hostel.
Although his lawyers got the federal murder charge dismissed, Garnett also delivered some setbacks to the defense, ruling in January that prosecutors could use items collected from Mangione’s backpack during his arrest as evidence against him. They included a 3D-printed pistol that investigators said matched the one used to kill Thompson and a notebook in which authorities say Mangione described his intent to kill an insurance executive.
Similarly, the judge in the state case threw out terrorism charges against Mangione but agreed to let the gun and notebook be used as evidence. The case has been heading toward a September trial, but his lawyers' new bid to dismiss it could complicate the timeline.
Associated Press writers Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed.
In this courtroom sketch, Luigi Mangione, center, sits between his attorneys, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, left, and Marc Agnifilo, right, before pleading guilty to federal stalking charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, in New York. (Jane Rosenberg via AP)
Defense attorneys for Luigi Mangione, Marc Agnifilo and Karen Friedman Agnifilo exit Manhattan federal court after Mangione pleaded guilty on to federal stalking charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026 in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
Paulette "Pauley" Thompson exits Manhattan federal court after Luigi Mangione pleaded guilty on to federal stalking charges in the killing of her husband, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026 in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
FILE - Suspect Luigi Mangione is taken into the Blair County Courthouse on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, in Hollidaysburg, Pa. (Benjamin B. Braun/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP, File)
Luigi Mangione attends a pre-trial hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. (David Dee Delgado/Pool Photo via AP)
Members of the media wait in line outside of Manhattan Federal Court on the day of a hearing for Luigi Mangione on Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
Luigi Mangione appears for a pre-trial hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. (David Dee Delgado/Pool Photo via AP)
A man holds a sign outside of Manhattan Federal Court on the day of a hearing for Luigi Mangione on Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
Luigi Mangione appears for a pre-trial hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool)
