Here's how I got taken.
I invested with them because of their track record (as one of the best-performing hedge funds), plus I liked the idea of investing in small emerging companies. Corey never named the companies, and I had no idea that they were all penny and sub-penny stocks. He always talked about them very positively: their ingenius inventions, their valuable patents, their glowing prospects, etc. It irked me a little, his not naming the companies, but I thought maybe he was under confidentiality restraints. And once those positive returns started coming in, I really didn't care any more. When you're seeing rising numbers on your statements, month after month, year after year, without fail, it's mesmerizing! Every month, he made either a little money or a lot of money, but it was always something no matter what the market was doing; he never reported a loss. And the idea that the results were phony never occurred to me. After all, there was an independent accounting firm involved, and we were getting audited tax statements, etc. I honestly never questioned it. Plus, Corey kept feeding us all that stuff about his mammoth charity work, and I'll admit: it got to me. Here was a guy with integrity. Here was a decent, upstanding, compassionate guy who gives his time and money to the children, the homeless, and the animals. Surely, a guy like that has got to be honest in business and especially with his own partners, right?
