Wait so if the products actually worked as expected then he would not have been caught/found guilty? Why is Adam Neumann not also facing prison time for leasing his own building/selling "we" to wework?
At much smaller scale, engineer on my team had brother who owned business organizing offsites/company retreats. Engineer suggested we use his brother company for our team offsite (and told what a cool rope courses they do) and disclosed affiliation (that he is his brother). After that I checked websites, looked at other options and decided to go with engineer's brother company. I email HR just in case and it was totally fine. Key was that I (unaffiliated with brother company) made final decision and disclosure of relationship. Event was a blast and frankly I feel that we got more than we paid as brother worked extra hard to make sure everything went smooth and cool.
I recommended that company to other managers and I know that a few other teams had events with them. At this point it was twice removed (those managers did not even know engineer on my team) and no disclosure was necessary.
Disclosure is key.
Don't mean to sound like a clown but You know what I've noticed? Nobody panics when things go "according to plan." Even if the plan is horrifying!
Go wrong as in somebody died? Pretty sure conflict of interest will be about 10th thing anyone will worry about.
Go wrong as in rafting guide bantering sexist jokes? Happen to my team without any conflict of interest. Asked him to stop as soon as I heard it, reported to HR, explained situation and nothing came out of it. Again I can't imaging conflict of interest will change anything here.
I guess my question would be, is there a point where it does become illegal even if there was an individual owner? Is there a threshold where leasing at higher than market rate becomes illegal?
In the US, you typically want different entities owning the real estate versus the ones operating the business for liability and tax purposes. The IRS treats owners' basis differently based on whether the income is due to passive (real estate rental) or non passive activity (operations).
And your comment didn't help clear anything up other than getting across that you are obviously superior in the field of tax law.
Thanks.