The Simple Flaw That Sank Greensill’s Complex Financial Empire

Every company has a genesis story, a tale to give customers and investors something simple to latch onto, even when the business is new or hard to understand. Tech pioneer Hewlett-Packard was started by a couple of electronics tinkerers in a garage. EBay, on its way to introducing the idea of online auctions, had a (made-up) yarn about someone looking for a better way to collect Pez dispensers. Theranos peddled its (allegedly made-up) finger-prick blood test technology with a story about founder Elizabeth Holmes being afraid of needles as a child.

Greensill Capital had the melon farm. Lex Greensill, ...