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How Masayoshi Son's 'money guy' Lex Greensill went from hero to zero

Son has had to write down his investment, making it among the worst in the history of his Vision Fund, alongside the implosion of WeWork Cos., another SoftBank portfolio company

Japan's SoftBank Group Corp Chief Executive Masayoshi Son attends a news conference in Tokyo. Photo: Reuters
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Japan's SoftBank Group Corp Chief Executive Masayoshi Son attends a news conference in Tokyo. Photo: Reuters

Giles Turner, Lucca de Paoli and Pavel Alpeyev | Bloomberg
SoftBank Group Corp.’s Masayoshi Son visited Indonesia, offering to invest billions of dollars toward the development of a new capital city. Lex Greensill, at the time a favorite of Son’s, was part of the entourage.

SoftBank had invested $1.5 billion in Greensill’s eponymous finance company, but in a meeting with Indonesian president Joko Widodo, Son introduced Greensill as the “money guy,” according to local TV footage.

One year later, the money guy has become a money pit. Greensill Capital collapsed in March in one of the most spectacular financial blow-ups of recent years, sending shock waves through a Swiss banking