In 2009, Sterling agreed to pay the U.S. Justice Department a then-record $2.73 million to settle allegations his companies targeted and discriminated against blacks, Hispanics and families with children in renting apartments in greater Los Angeles.
In 2005, his company agreed to settle a similar racial discrimination suit for an undisclosed sum – "one of the largest ever obtained in this type of case," according to the judge – and a reported $5 million in plaintiff legal fees.
He's been sued multiple times by individuals on racial charges. The tape is just the latest in a near endless list of terrible comments people have relayed, often on the record, through the courts or media.
In 2011, a jury rejected a wrongful termination suit brought by longtime general manager Elgin Baylor, but it did contain Baylor's allegation, which had nothing to do with the case, that Sterling tried to control the race of his tenants because, he allegedly said, "Black tenants smell and attract vermin."
