SoftBank Sues Former IRL CEO For Fraud

SoftBank sued former IRL CEO Abraham Shafi and five siblings and cousins for allegedly misleading the investor about the messaging app's growth, prompting the Japanese conglomerate to buy $150 million worth of shares in the company in 2021 at the height of a pandemic-fueled consumer internet boom. The Information: SoftBank said Shafi and his family members defrauded investors by lying about the company's millions of users, which were actually bots. The lawsuit said the defendants deleted data and communications about the fraud after U.S. securities regulators began investigating the company following a report in The Information questioning the user figures. Last month, The Information reported the company was being shut down following an external investigation initiated by its board of directors that found 95% of its users were fake. The conduct described in the lawsuit, including allegedly deleting evidence during a federal investigation, could put Shafi in further legal trouble.

Softbank

[ls671]

SoftBank said Shafi and his family members defrauded investors by lying about the company's millions of users, which were actually bots.

Bots?
One might suspect that bank executives should know better but then again...

Maybe I should send a Nigerian prince email to Softbank executives! Profits!

Former IRL?

[fahrbot-bot]

SoftBank Sues Former IRL CEO For Fraud

He's now a virtual CEO ... :-)

Re: Former IRL?

[jddj]

Uh... Used to be in the Indy Racing League?

Re:

[XXongo]

In Real Life.

Re: Former IRL?

[jddj]

Well, not any more apparently.

Wait, wait, wait, WHAT?

[Opportunist]

A report about fraud and it's not crypto currency related?

Is that even legal?

Re:

[The Evil Atheist]

Inflated numbers of anonymous user accounts is the original crypto-currency. Literally hidden/non-existent currency.

Test drive?

[wakeboarder]

Wouldn't you want to take the company for a test drive and kick the wheels a little bit? Like actually use the service instead of looking at numbers?

Re:

[quonset]

Wouldn't you want to take the company for a test drive and kick the wheels a little bit? Like actually use the service instead of looking at numbers?

Nope. Nowadays it's all about the numbers, or metrics in current speak. Metrics is everything. If you're not measuring every instance of anything a company does, you're a failure. Who needs to walk the grounds and see for themselves how things are so long as they can look at metrics.

Research?

[The Evil Atheist]

Why don't these numbnuts ever think to hire investigators with actual knowledge of how to investigate technology and tech companies before investing? These people seem to get easily seduced by big numbers without questioning how those numbers are arrived at.

It's almost nerd-like how these people don't think twice when there's a number involved, because hard numbers are better than fuzzy reality.

and THIS time they did due diligence

[nicolaiplum]

I am amused to note that Softbank take great pains to state that they did due diligence but were defrauded. Almost like they neglected that in some other investments and are feeling embarassed.