The CEO is in a great position!

https://www.wsj.com/articles/weworks-ceo-makes-millions-as-l...

Turning billions into millions!

Turning billions of other people's money in millions for yourself is not that bad (for you).

This is what really confuses me. If the business is successful, this bullshit will be small beans and his wealth in wework will make him incredibly wealthy. So there's no upside to doing this if the business succeeds.

If the business fails, not only will he have no wealth from the company, you know sure as shit someone will come after him for these shady practices, putting him in extra trouble.

No. No one is coming for him. And we all know it.

I’m getting paywalled but from the small blurb I’m reading that seems pretty fucked up. If you were a smart investor you wouldn’t give him the explicit green light but instead use it as a hedge the business fails so you can sue him for embezzlement

The Trump playbook.

Curious if they are even landlords. Aren't they just subleasing, such that no equity (of theirs) is being paid down? Or do they actually own the buildings?

If you hold the master lease on a space with the intention of subletting, you are a landlord. We can even argue about whether, under a triple-net lease, the owner or the tenant has more skin in the game.

I mention it because it's notable that they aren't gaining equity whilst losing cash. Just losing cash.

And this comment is worth looking at: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19488219

It’s the corporate version of what many small individual real estate investors were doing in the lead up to 2008.

In common law, for historical reasons, leases are recursable.

That said, the basic mechanic has been the subject of substantial legislative tinkering in pretty much every common law jurisdiction in the world.

I don't think they own most of their locations. They're just leasing long-term and subleasing short-term.