WeWork’s bankruptcy filing caps a years-long saga that revealed breathtaking flaws in the investment style of Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son, damaging his professional reputation far beyond the money he lost.

Son overrode his lieutenants’ objections and handed WeWork founder Adam Neumann billions of dollars from both SoftBank and the Vision Fund, lifting the co-working office space’s valuation to an astronomical $US47 billion in early 2019. Just months later, investors balked at the deep losses and conflicts of interest WeWork’s IPO filings revealed.

Bloomberg