Personally purchasing buildings to rent out to the We company definitely crosses some lines. Same with purchasing the “We” brand which he generously licensed to WeWork for some $5 million.
Self dealing is very much breaking the rules. Sure, maybe the powers that be let it slide, but it is not playing fair.
Edit: in fact, when the musical chairs stopped and the IPO failed, there were lawsuits about the self dealing. So long as people were making money the board were willing to look the other way.
This is a lazy take on morality. Neumann enriched himself from wealthy, supposedly sophisticated investors. So sad. He took (not stole, took) from the rich (which they willingly handed over), gave to himself, and walks around free with no criminal prosecution to speak of.
We might disagree on what constitutes “bad people.”
How about the ”context” that those investors were investing in his company which had hundreds or thousands of employees who also had stakes in its financial health? And he stole the company’s money from those stakeholders and handed it over to himself personally?
How many degrees in Advanced Moral Gymnastics do you need to figure that one out?
We just disagree on morality and the subjectivity of truth and human opinion (see Søren Kierkegaard's philosophy writings for more on this), that's all, no gymnastics required.
Don't worry, I'm aware that people can have different moral frameworks. I'm also totally comfortable saying that if "lying in order to enrich oneself at the expense of others" is not a solid indicator of "bad person" in your moral framework, then you're an asshole.
Note also that "asshole" has different connotations to different people. And yet... still a very useful descriptor to help isolate bad actors from the rest of society.
Only if you view rules as pointless adversaries to be beaten. But often rules exist for good reasons to keep people safe and keep interactions fair and trustworthy.
Bending rules isn't something that you should take inherent pride in, and personally, it always lowers my opinion of such people.
I see no reason to assume what someone was or was not thinking in this case. Both parties had sufficient resources to do due diligence, and both parties engaged completely voluntarily under zero duress.
My heuristic is that whenever someone insists on emphasizing that something iS NoT iLlEgAl, then they're probably trying to obscure that something is wrong.
That was known and the board allowed it. I am on the fence about this because this kind of fraud is team effort. The board and the investors avert their eyes for things that are unethical or even illegal because the "founder" is the golden goose that can do no wrong. They also seem to like being lied to.
"Due diligence" is a dirty phrase in that world. They are geniuses, man. Movers and shakers!
Huh? This is a peak performance in capitalism. Free market mechanics at its finest. This guy got roughly 2B$ to step down whilst still billing 50M$ annually as a "consultant".
34 comments
[ 37.2 ms ] story [ 117 ms ] threadEdit: in fact, when the musical chairs stopped and the IPO failed, there were lawsuits about the self dealing. So long as people were making money the board were willing to look the other way.
We might disagree on what constitutes “bad people.”
How about the ”context” that those investors were investing in his company which had hundreds or thousands of employees who also had stakes in its financial health? And he stole the company’s money from those stakeholders and handed it over to himself personally?
How many degrees in Advanced Moral Gymnastics do you need to figure that one out?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_S%C3%B8ren_Kierk... ("Wikipedia: Philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard: Subjectivity")
Note also that "asshole" has different connotations to different people. And yet... still a very useful descriptor to help isolate bad actors from the rest of society.
Bending rules isn't something that you should take inherent pride in, and personally, it always lowers my opinion of such people.
... as in, himself?
"Due diligence" is a dirty phrase in that world. They are geniuses, man. Movers and shakers!
I can confirm, he has no shame.