A10| Thursday, February 27, 2020 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
Messrs. Arora and Sama de-
clined to comment.
The campaign took shape in
January 2015, when Mr. Misra,
once a top banker at Deutsche
Bank AG and UBS Group AG,
had been at SoftBank for only a
few months. Mr. Son hired him
to play a role ironing out Soft-
Bank’s finances. Mr. Son had
also poached Mr. Arora from a
plum perch at Google and had
given him a big job.
Mr. Misra and Mr. Arora of-
ten rubbed each other the
wrong way. Mr. Arora, based in
San Francisco and commuting
to Tokyo, could be direct and
sometimes abrasive, and he
consolidated power fast, upset-
ting Japanese executives who
had long held the reins.
Mr. Misra, in London, worked
from offices of SoftBank-con-
trolled Sprint, far from the core
decision makers. Mr. Arora op-
posed a proposed investment in
an Indian entertainment firm
that was one of the first deals
Mr. Misra championed.
A French banker named Ber-
trand des Pallieres, who knew
both Mr. Misra and Mr. Bene-
detti, suggested the two meet,
people familiar with the eventssaid. According to these people,
Messrs. Misra and Benedetti
got together in London in early
2015, and Mr. Benedetti quickly
agreed to participate in an ef-
fort to weaken Mr. Arora’s posi-
tion at SoftBank.
The people said that Mr.
Benedetti gave Mr. Misra a spe-
cial cellphone to use for calls
about the plan, and that the
two sometimes met at London’s
Bulgari Hotel.
How Mr. Benedetti would be
compensated was left vague,
but he developed the impres-
sion he would receive a cut of
Mr. Misra’s earnings at Soft-
Bank and could be made an ex-
ecutive at the firm if Mr. Arora
was neutralized, said people
familiar with discussions Mr.
Benedetti had with associates.
In April 2015, Mr. Misra sent
$500,000 from his account at
Standard Chartered Bank to
Barkmere Group Ltd., a British
Virgin Islands company con-
trolled by Mr. Benedetti, ac-
cording to documents reviewed
by the Journal. People familiar
with the transaction said it was
for initial campaign expenses.
That month, Mr. Benedetti
sent a team to Tokyo to set upthe so-called honey trap, in
which one or more women
would lure Mr. Arora to a hotel
room rigged with cameras in an
attempt to obtain compromis-
ing images, people familiar
with the effort said.
The mission failed: Mr.
Arora didn’t fall for the ploy.
Around that time, Mr. Bene-
detti hired K2 Intelligence LLC,
a private intelligence firm, to
investigate Messrs. Arora and
Sama and disseminate findings
to the media, according to
emails and people familiar with
the hiring. He also recruited a
Swiss private intelligence oper-
ative, Nicolas Giannakopoulos,
to work on the campaign.
Mr. Giannakopoulos distrib-
uted to journalists screenshots
of Mr. Arora’s and Mr. Sama’s
private banking records and
emails, according to messages
reviewed by the Journal. Mr.
Giannakopoulos didn’t respond
to requests for comment.
K2 hired a London public-re-
lations firm, Powerscourt
Group, to try to get K2’s find-
ings and information provided
by Mr. Benedetti into the press.
The operatives often referred
to Mr. Arora by a code name,FROM PAGE ONE
Hong Kong, a densely popu-
lated city with 7.5 million peo-
ple, has so far reported 91 con-
firmed coronavirus cases.
Following a week-long Lunar
New Year holiday, the govern-
ment closed all schools starting
Feb. 3 and said they won’t re-
open until it is safe for stu-
dents to congregate again. The
earliest date schools could re-
open is April 20. City education
officials have advised schools
to embrace online learning. In apress briefing, they demon-
strated virtual learning plat-
forms to help convince the pub-
lic that they could be effective
alternatives to school.
Principals and teachers are
using different modes, including
online learning, to help students
continue studies at home and
have achieved the goal of “sus-
pending classes without sus-
pending learning,” said Secre-
tary for Education Kevin Yeung.
On Facebook, a Hong Kongparents group has posts from
people worrying about children
falling behind on important
exam prep, complaining about
balancing full-time jobs with
supervising schoolwork or just
missing having their kids out of
the house for most of the day.
In mainland China, schools
were on holiday until mid-Feb-
ruary but now those closures
have been extended and some
are experimenting with online
learning. South Korea has alsoclosed some schools.
International schools in
Hong Kong, where fees gener-
ally range between $10,000 and
$22,000 a year, have been espe-
cially active online.
At the Harbour School, an
American international school,
students are required to keep
up with virtual lessons that fol-
low regular class timetables.
Second-graders have to write
multipage lab reports after
watching their teachers per-form live demonstrations of
science experiments shown on
camera, while kindergartners
have to make recordings of
themselves reading words. “It’s
as compulsory as a given regu-
lar school day is,” said Chris-
tine Greenberg, its prep and
primary school principal.
Tarana Shah, who works full
time at a French investment
bank, said she has been spend-
ing a large part of her non-
working hours helping her 6-
year-old daughter Isha finish
assigned school work. One
weekend, they assembled a 12-
page book titled “How To Take
Care Of A Cocker Spaniel.”
“It’s so exhausting because
that is all we were doing
through the day,” said Ms.
Shah, who spends part of her
lunch breaks printing out work-
sheets for her daughter.
She uses a spreadsheet to
keep track of assignments and
submissions to teachers, but
she’s trying not to worry if a
few things fall through the
cracks. “I realized that she’s six,
it’s OK if she learns five things
less than the other kids in her
class,” she said.
Ms. Taylor, who has been
trying to juggle working at
home and online schooling, de-
cided to send her 10-year-old
twins to Chicago to stay with
her in-laws, to break the bore-
dom of being stuck at home.
She worries the children could
have fallen behind when school
eventually reopens. “There will
be all these other kids who
have that two or three months
of incredibly intensive home
schooling,” she said.
—Jing Yang contributed to
this article.“Mr. West.”
In September 2015, Mr. Gian-
nakopoulos, who goes by Nico,
contacted a freelance reporter
to pitch a story about a trou-
bled telecom deal Mr. Arora
played a part in. Reporter Mark
Hollingsworth took the story to
The Independent, a British
newspaper. An email about this
arrangement suggested the re-
porter would be paid if the
story was published.
“The Independent is not a
high quality newspaper so I’ve
asked Nico only to offer a suc-
cess fee,” David Robertson,
then a K2 employee working on
the campaign, wrote in an
email to several people.
The Independent published
the article October 2015. Mr.
Hollingsworth said the notion
he received a success fee was
“completely and utterly false.”
A spokeswoman for The In-
dependent said it expects jour-
nalists to adhere to “all appli-
cable bribery and corruption
laws.”
A spokeswoman for K2 said
the firm doesn’t discuss clients
or client matters. Powerscourt’s
CEO said the same.
At SoftBank, the article and
others that resulted were
mostly seen as noise, people fa-
miliar with the internal reac-
tion said. By November 2015,
Mr. Benedetti was trying a new
tack: a shareholder campaign.
He asked law firm Susman God-
frey LLP to represent him as an
investor making claims about
SoftBank, Mr. Arora and others,
emails show.
The law firm declined to
take the work, and Mr. Bene-
detti went to Boies Schiller
Flexner LLP. Mr. Benedetti ar-
ranged for Mr. Giannakopoulos
to be the shareholder nominally
behind the claims, but stayed
closely involved, according to
people familiar with the events.
In January 2016, a Boies
Schiller lawyer sent a public
letter questioning Mr. Arora’s
investments in Indian startups
and asking for an investigation
of alleged conflicts of interest.
Mr. Arora’s “past conduct also
demonstrates his willingness to
put his personal interests—and
those of his partners—above
those of the companies that
have employed him as a senior
executive,” the letter said.
More letters followed
throughout 2016 from Boies
Schiller and a law firm that
succeeded it, prompting Soft-
Bank’s board to launch an in-
vestigation into Mr. Arora,
which found the allegations to
be false. Over time, critical
shareholder letters began to fo-
cus on Mr. Sama as well.
In June 2016, Mr. Arora re-
signed from SoftBank. He said
he made the decision after Mr.
Son chose not to give up his
CEO post. Messrs. Son and
Arora had begun to disagree on
investments, said people famil-
iar with the internal dynamics.
Mr. Benedetti saw the resig-
nation as vindication of his
strategy and expected Mr.
Misra to pay him with a cut of
deals and a job, according to
people aware of his discussions
with associates at the time.They said he was frustrated
when Mr. Misra identified Mr.
Sama as another obstacle in his
path. Mr. Sama’s profile rose
higher in July 2016 when he
helped Mr. Son negotiate to buy
Arm Holdings for £24.3 billion.
Mr. Misra had all but given
up, and was planning to leave
SoftBank himself, in mid-
shortly before Mr. Arora re-
signed. Then, discussions about
the planned Vision Fund invest-
ment initiative heated up. After
SoftBank unveiled the fund in
October 2016, Mr. Misra was
named as the person oversee-
ing the project.
Mr. Sama was proving a hin-
drance, questioning Mr. Misra’s
strategies to add debt to the Vi-
sion Fund. Mr. Giannakopoulos
swung back into action with
more letters, some directly to
Vision Fund investors.
In addition, Mr. Misra asked
two businessmen in India to
submit a complaint about Mr.
Sama to a government regula-
tor, according to people famil-
iar with the conversations.
Investors discussing putting
money into the Vision Fund
raised questions about Mr.
Sama with SoftBank in spring
2017, the Journal previously re-
ported, for a time preventing
Mr. Sama from further work on
the Vision Fund.
At Mr. Misra’s direction, the
Vision Fund soon was splashing
out—investing $500 million to
$3 billion at a time on dozens
of startups in artificial intelli-
gence, transportation, real es-
tate and health care.
Mr. Misra tried to open a
door that could lead Mr. Bene-
detti to deals or employment.
In a June 2017 email, Mr. Misra
introduced Mr. Benedetti to Mi-
chael Klein, a former Citigroup
banker with a thick Rolodex
across Europe and the Middle
East. Mr. Klein was a banker
Mr. Misra would soon bring on
to advise SoftBank on its pur-
chase of Uber shares and other
potential deals, eventually pay-
ing him $6 million in fees.
“Michael look forward to
seeing you tomorrow. I want to
introduce you to mr. benedetti
as a partner,” Mr. Misra wrote.
Mr. Misra later urged Mr.
Klein to hire Mr. Benedetti to
represent his firm M. Klein &
Co. in Europe, said people fa-
miliar with their discussions. In
November 2017, the three of
them met at the Hotel Baur au
Lac in Zurich. The following
fall, Mr. Benedetti pitched Mr.
Klein on a series of telecom ac-
quisitions. He also asked Mr.
Klein to provide his son with
business contacts and advice.
“M. Klein & Co. has never
had any business relationship
or financial dealings with Ales-
sandro Benedetti,” a spokes-
woman for Mr. Klein said.
Mr. Benedetti felt short-
changed. In recent months, his
relationship with Mr. Misra has
deteriorated. Associates of the
Italian businessman said he has
told them he recorded conver-
sations in which Mr. Misra de-
tailed his plans to weaken his
SoftBank rivals.
—Alex Frangos contributed to
this article.those behind it. SoftBank will be
reviewing the inferences made
by The Wall Street Journal.”
Mr. Misra teamed with an
Italian businessman who had
worked with private intelli-
gence operatives and computer
hackers, according to people
with knowledge of his past. At
the outset in 2015, Mr. Misra
paid the businessman, Ales-
sandro Benedetti, $500,000, ac-
cording to an email sent by Mr.
Misra and to people familiar
with the payment instructions.
Several people said Mr. Misra
or Mr. Benedetti told associates
millions more followed.
A spokesman for Mr. Misra
said he denied paying for any
campaign and said that the
$500,000 transfer was for an
oil investment.
Mr. Benedetti is upset he
hasn’t received compensation
he believes he was promised,
according to the people familiar
with the matter. They said Mr.
Benedetti expected Mr. Misra to
name him a senior executive at
the Vision Fund in London. No
job ever materialized.
What lay behind the criti-
cisms of Messrs. Arora and
Sama has long been murky.
Open shareholder letters called
on SoftBank to investigate the
men’s business dealings. Jour-
nalists received screenshots of
their private banking records.
Complaints about the two were
filed to U.S. and Indian finan-
cial regulators. Both men have
denied any wrongdoing.
The Journal reported on the
campaign against the men in
May 2017. About a year later, a
second Journal article revealed
Mr. Benedetti’s involvement. It
said SoftBank had instructed
law firm Shearman & Sterling
LLP to lead an investigation of
the campaign and any possible
connections between Mr. Bene-
detti and a SoftBank insider.
SoftBank ended the investiga-
tion in 2019 without getting to
the bottom of the matter.
Meanwhile, in early 2018 a
law firm working for Mr.
Misra’s group at SoftBank, Paul,
Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Gar-
rison LLP, hired a private inves-
tigator, who told a Journal re-
porter the campaign was
probably the work of a com-
pany SoftBank invested in. The
Journal couldn’t verify that and
didn’t publish it.
This account is based on in-
terviews with people familiar
with the campaign, including
some close to Messrs. Misra or
Benedetti, as well as on docu-
ments that show Mr. Misra pro-
vided information and funding.
Mr. Benedetti declined to
comment. Two years ago, his
lawyer said that Mr. Benedetti
denied having “mandated or
been party to any campaign”
against SoftBank executives.
ContinuedfromPageOne
SoftBank
Sabotage
Campaign
who still goes to the office,
helps with homework after he
gets home and sometimes
works on the apartment’s bal-
cony. Ms. Taylor has struggled
to help her kids with fractions
and long-division problems—“I
only vaguely remember doing
that at school”—and has caught
them watching videos on You-
Tube during lesson time. Re-
cently, the twins’ teachers
stopped classroom-wide Google
Hangouts and moved to smaller
online class groups.
Teresa Liu’s 3-year-old son
Zachary started online classes
this month. In video meetings,
his preschool teachers told sto-
ries in English, Mandarin and
Cantonese and talked about the
importance of wearing masks
and washing their hands.
Zachary paid attention for
the first few minutes, but when
teachers asked questions to
other children, he lost interest
and left his seat to climb on
chairs and the table.
“He’s pretty active,” said Ms.
Liu, adding that her family’s
domestic helper had to chase
him around to try to sit him in
front of the teacher on the
computer screen. Ms. Liu said
they intend to stick with the
online lessons so he stays con-
nected with his school and
teachers.
ContinuedfromPageOne
City Shifts
To Home
Schooling
DAVID PAUL MORRIS/BLOOMBERG NEWSCHRIS RATCLIFFE/BLOOMBERG NEWSClockwise from top: SoftBank’s Rajeev Misra; former executive Nikesh Arora, left, with founder
Masayoshi Son; businessman Alessandro Benedetti; and Alok Sama, also an ex-SoftBank executive.OLEKSANDR SYNYTSYA/UNIAN KAZUHIRO NOGI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGESTwins Isabella and Max Crowe, 10, worked on school assignments as their father worked on a balcony at home in Hong Kong.ANTHONY KWAN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL