WeWork—CEO Adam Neumann engaged in extensive self-dealing including property leases and trademark sale
WeWork's August 2019 S-1 filing revealed extensive self-dealing by co-founder and CEO Adam Neumann. He purchased properties and leased them back to WeWork with future lease obligations of approximately $236.6 million. He trademarked the word 'We' and charged WeWork nearly $6 million to use it when the company rebranded. He took personal loans from the company and cashed out at least $700 million in shares before the IPO attempt. These revelations triggered investigations by both the SEC and the New York Attorney General into potential financial rule violations and self-enrichment.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate Governance | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Corporate Transparency | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.858 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (critical ×2) × confidence (0.57)
Evidence (1 signal)
SEC and NY Attorney General launched investigations into Neumann self-dealing at WeWork
In November 2019, both the SEC and the New York State Attorney General opened investigations into whether Adam Neumann engaged in self-dealing at WeWork, including leasing personally-owned properties back to the company and charging nearly $6 million for trademark rights to the word 'We'.