Masayoshi Son—Owed SoftBank $4.7 billion on personal side deals structured to boost his own compensation as Vision Fund losses mounted
In November 2022, it was revealed that Masayoshi Son personally owed SoftBank Group Corp $4.7 billion (later rising to $5.1 billion by February 2023) on side deals he had set up to increase his personal compensation while the Vision Fund posted record losses. Son held more than 30% stake in SoftBank and structured these arrangements as 'remuneration for investment expertise' in lieu of investment fees. Governance experts and activist investor Elliott Management criticized this as a clear conflict of interest, but Son denied wrongdoing.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate Governance | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Executive Compensation | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Undisclosed Conflicts | +toward | secondary | -0.50 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.625 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.50)