Is SoftBank in trouble for Nikesh Arora's conduct?

Leading Japanese telecom firm and technology investor SoftBank is facing a preliminary enquiry over the conduct of Nikesh Arora, who quit the firm as COO last week, a Bloomberg report said today.

The report said the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) is looking into whether Arora had "conflicts of interest or engaged in questionable behaviour".

The news comes in the wake of Arora's resignation last week after he stepped down citing differences with SoftBank Founder and CEO Masayoshi Son over when the former would take over as chief executive.

Son had previously tipped Arora to take over as CEO in a few years but later decided he wanted to continue to lead SoftBank for "five to 10 years" more.

The resignation came in the wake of an anonymous complaint that some SoftBank investors had made against Arora questioning his performance, pay and whether he had an inherent conflict of interest in another role in which he advised a private equity firm.

Arora, who joined SoftBank from Google in 2014, was among the highest paid executives in the world, drawing about USD 150 million that year.

When the investor complaint came to light, Son stood by Arora and a SoftBank probe found him not guilty of any wrongdoing.

It is not clear if the SEC enquiry pertains to specific charges laid out in the letter.Arora developed a following in the Indian startup ecosystem after leading SoftBank's investments of about USD 2 billion in local companies.