exactly, confusion can be a great tactic for those who wish to mislead......
I've lost count of the scams which collapsed with people asking what was the motive, why did they spend money on a project if it wasn't "real", or buy a property, hire people, do this deal, announce a PR, etc.....scammers often need to spend some money to make some money!!!!....I don't know what happened here either, but that's a typical pattern when these things blow up, only hints and clues (if you're lucky)....
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.
Richard Feynman
if a dozen or more insiders, friends, family and cronies can make "only" a few hundred thousand dollars (as an example) it beats punching a time clock!!!!....often the payout is equivalent to years of a normal working stiff's salary, for not doing too much real effort....again, I don't know what the circumstances are with this one.....it will be interesting to see how it develops, and what gets revealed on what is/was going on.....