After WeWork, SoftBank’s Startup Bookkeeping Draws Scrutiny
The more I hear about this the more it looks like this entire scheme has turned into a pyramid scheme. Pouring more money into investments to try and boost the valuation. Using previous investments to invest and boost the value of new investments, guaranteeing massive loans in order to get others to invest at huge valuations. It just looks more and more like laundering money through all sorts of different mechanisms to create paper gains that don't reflect reality.<p>The interesting point though is that this is basically all being done using money that private investors  have given, so really there's no public accountability or outrage. The question is whether the investors in the vision fund start asking to open the books and check the valuations themselves. If they don't then this will just continue until Masayoshi finds a way of getting his hands on and even bigger pile of money in order to continue to cover up the dodgy valuations - because that's what you'd have to do right? You'd have to do another massive fund to have enough cash to continue driving up these valuations? You would want another massive fund raised quickly before the existing investments start fallling apart.<p>I wonder what Masayoshi is doing these days.