J.P. Morgan chief Jamie Dimon meanwhile emerged as a somewhat unlikely hero when he said he was «disgusted by racism and hate in any form» following reports staff discriminated against African-American clients at one of its branches in Arizona. This was after he dedicated $500 million to Advancing Cities, a project dedicated to increasing economic diversity in the world’s cities and the communities within them.

HOT – Sports 

Steve Cohen, arguably the most successful hedge fund managers in history, has made a bid for the New York Mets, the two-time World Series-winning Major League baseball team. If it succeeds, Cohen’s bid will catapult him into an elite cadre of asset managers who have a penchant for sports teams as investments rather than trophy assets.

(Image: littlenySTOCK/Shutterstock)

Private equity firm Silver Lake bought a piece of the group that owns the Manchester City football team in late 2019 and CVC Capital Partners bought a minority stake in England’s premier rugby league having previously owned Formula One for ten years. Skeptics may discuss the purchases as vanity projects but the 32 leading European football clubs were valued at $41 billion at the start of 2019, an increase of 35 percent over three years according to a report by consultancy KPMG.

NOT – Office Romance

Relationships are complicated at best, but a love triangle in a professional setting can literally cost you millions. Mark Wiseman, a potential successor to Blackrock CEO Larry Fink and the man at the helm of a $300 billion active equities fund at the U.S. asset management giant was fired for failing to disclose an affair he had with a colleague.

That Wiseman was married at the time to Blackrock's asset management CEO Marcia Moffat probably did not help his case when he was negotiating an exit package.

NOT – Softbank: Blindsided «Vision»

Softbank’s $100 billion technology-focused Vision Fund took more body-blows in 2019 than a prizefighter in a wrestling match. The near-collapse of its flagship investment in co-working group WeWork; the clamor for the fund to write-down its investment in ride-hailing apps Didi and Grab after a 35 percent collapse in Uber’s valuation.

Its controversial investment into teenager Ritesh Agarwal’s hospitality start-up Oyo; problems with its investment into Paytm, Asia’s biggest unicorn outside of China; have all led investors to question founder Masayoshi Son's (pictured above) legendary status.

Ironically, the very same investors saw no reason to question Son’s demigod status when he stood by Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, to whom Son owes as much as half of the Vision Fund’s capital, in the aftermath of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. But because investors tend to be much more concerned by plummeting valuations than they do plummeting ethics, it may be hard times ahead for Softbank.