5 ms·

They are focusing on self dealing by Neumann. Can’t wait to read about it from Matt Levine. It’s amazing to see this story keep on developing apparently after

They are focusing on self dealing by Neumann. Can’t wait to read about it from Matt Levine. It’s amazing to see this story keep on developing apparently after it was all supposed to be said and done when he left the company.

hanniabu 7y ago
I'm sure this would have never been brought up if a bunch of powerful people didn't lose a lot of money. They all would have happily ignored it as they dumped their billions of dollars worth of stock on the general public to deal with. Now that they've been burnt they're out for retribution.
- tempestn 7y ago
  Can't help thinking of the Showtime show Billions, especially since it's the NYAG's office.
  - girvo 7y ago
    The latest season of Billions was a bit, well, silly I guess, but damned if I don't enjoy it. Fun show!
    - rolltiide 7y ago
      I stopped midway at the wrestling match. Watch Succession instead. Its way stronger and has what I liked about Billions Season 1 while also being better
- H8crilA 7y ago
  Conspiracy theories everywhere. While simple explanations exist: it's on top of NYAG's list just because this case is famous. NYAG is a law enforcement officer, but also a politician. He/she will prioritise cases based on the eyeball count, and WeWork is killing the eyeball count.
  - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
    Exactly. Smacking down a rich billionaire who did something dirty is a political win you can present to the voters in NY and recovering money for other billionaires who got fleeced is a win you can present to the moneyed elite. Incentive alignments like that are fairly rare. There is nothing to lose here because even if you lose it can become a rallying cry for preventing it in the future. Even if there were no legal basis for the investigation it would likely still happen because it is such a massive political win that even if the AG was too dumb to take it up on their own accord the AG's boss would strongly suggest an investigation be opened. Just to be clean I'm not defending Neuman/WeWork definitely did wrong and I think the statutes around securities fraud are broad enough to nail them, just that the technical legality is a footnote compared to the other motivators here. It should be obvious why this kind of prosecution is a politician's wet dream (and make no mistake, a state AG is a politician, just not an elected one) regardless of whether there's clear law violation or not. Government doesn't swing into action like this because it's morally right or whatever (it may be morally right, but that is tangential). It swings into action because there are stakeholders to please and it's rare to have two big stakeholder groups aligned like this.
    - JumpCrisscross 7y ago
      > and recovering money for other billionaires who got fleeced WeWork has employees in New York. Many exercised stock options. Many are about to be laid off and start filing for unemployment benefits.
      - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
        >Many of them are about to be laid off and start filing for unemployment benefits. Make that three groups the AG can potentially please. Win^3 is way better than win^2 Too bad we don't get all around wins like this more often.
      - H8crilA 7y ago
        I never understood people exercising options on locked-up shares on any company. If at least they hedged by going short on the WeWork bonds which are the only publicly traded security. It's so risky! Do not do this! The tax advantage is not worth it!
zepearl 7y ago
> Can’t wait to read about it from Matt Levine. And from Scott Galloway ( https://www.profgalloway.com https://www.profgalloway.com ) :) Very interesting as what I understood was that, technically (SEC, SOX, whatever...), nothing of what Neumann did went against the rules, but maybe in this case the actions will be compared to the "spirit" of the (aggregated) rules? EDIT: and I guess that Softbank would be happy if Neumann would somehow lose shares/votes.
- jsjohnst 7y ago
  > Very interesting as what I understood was that, technically (SEC, SOX, whatever...), nothing of what Neumann did went against the rules What have you read that gave you that impression?
mc32 7y ago
I say this in jest but whatever he does, don’t talk to them without a lawyer and become another Martha Stewart.
abbadadda 7y ago
Matt Levine has been crushing this story, as well as dealbreaker and ftalphaville.

hanniabu 7y ago

I'm sure this would have never been brought up if a bunch of powerful people didn't lose a lot of money. They all would have happily ignored it as they dumped their billions of dollars worth of stock on the general public to deal with. Now that they've been burnt they're out for retribution.

tempestn 7y ago
Can't help thinking of the Showtime show Billions, especially since it's the NYAG's office.
- girvo 7y ago
  The latest season of Billions was a bit, well, silly I guess, but damned if I don't enjoy it. Fun show!
  - rolltiide 7y ago
    I stopped midway at the wrestling match. Watch Succession instead. Its way stronger and has what I liked about Billions Season 1 while also being better
H8crilA 7y ago
Conspiracy theories everywhere. While simple explanations exist: it's on top of NYAG's list just because this case is famous. NYAG is a law enforcement officer, but also a politician. He/she will prioritise cases based on the eyeball count, and WeWork is killing the eyeball count.
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago
  Exactly. Smacking down a rich billionaire who did something dirty is a political win you can present to the voters in NY and recovering money for other billionaires who got fleeced is a win you can present to the moneyed elite. Incentive alignments like that are fairly rare. There is nothing to lose here because even if you lose it can become a rallying cry for preventing it in the future. Even if there were no legal basis for the investigation it would likely still happen because it is such a massive political win that even if the AG was too dumb to take it up on their own accord the AG's boss would strongly suggest an investigation be opened. Just to be clean I'm not defending Neuman/WeWork definitely did wrong and I think the statutes around securities fraud are broad enough to nail them, just that the technical legality is a footnote compared to the other motivators here. It should be obvious why this kind of prosecution is a politician's wet dream (and make no mistake, a state AG is a politician, just not an elected one) regardless of whether there's clear law violation or not. Government doesn't swing into action like this because it's morally right or whatever (it may be morally right, but that is tangential). It swings into action because there are stakeholders to please and it's rare to have two big stakeholder groups aligned like this.
  - JumpCrisscross 7y ago
    > and recovering money for other billionaires who got fleeced WeWork has employees in New York. Many exercised stock options. Many are about to be laid off and start filing for unemployment benefits.
    - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
      >Many of them are about to be laid off and start filing for unemployment benefits. Make that three groups the AG can potentially please. Win^3 is way better than win^2 Too bad we don't get all around wins like this more often.
    - H8crilA 7y ago
      I never understood people exercising options on locked-up shares on any company. If at least they hedged by going short on the WeWork bonds which are the only publicly traded security. It's so risky! Do not do this! The tax advantage is not worth it!

zepearl 7y ago

> Can’t wait to read about it from Matt Levine. And from Scott Galloway ( https://www.profgalloway.com https://www.profgalloway.com ) :) Very interesting as what I understood was that, technically (SEC, SOX, whatever...), nothing of what Neumann did went against the rules, but maybe in this case the actions will be compared to the "spirit" of the (aggregated) rules? EDIT: and I guess that Softbank would be happy if Neumann would somehow lose shares/votes.

jsjohnst 7y ago
> Very interesting as what I understood was that, technically (SEC, SOX, whatever...), nothing of what Neumann did went against the rules What have you read that gave you that impression?

mc32 7y ago

I say this in jest but whatever he does, don’t talk to them without a lawyer and become another Martha Stewart.

abbadadda 7y ago

Matt Levine has been crushing this story, as well as dealbreaker and ftalphaville.