Well, it may actually be to delay the inevitable and not go to jail. If you put yourself in a situation where u are staring jail in the face, what do you do, just admit to it and go in or keep buying yourself time, even knowing that chances are very slim you get away with it? It's simple human nature, even if you are 100% sure that you will go to jail you still try as hard as possible to delay it.
And in most cases, such as this case, there is a chance that the longer they drag it on the more likely something is to happen like the case being dropped, evidence being inadmissible due to some mistake or some legal challenge from them, etc. And especially investors being worn out, that's a big one. If everyone slowly mentally becomes ok with the idea that nothing will come of it and money is gone they are less likely to sue than if a bomb is dropped on you one day that all the promises were smoke and mirrors and there's nothing there. If someone told me the company is a scam (and it was proven) 3 years ago I would have been shocked and on the phone with a lawyer straight away. If proof comes out today I won't be very shocked at all. Maybe that's what they are trying to do, wear us out.
And last point is they maybe are trying to build an alibi, where when it eventually turns out they had nothing or had a joke of a product they can say, no, look, we had all this stuff that looked amazing and was tested by a national company and they loved it and we were so close but whatever, something happened, investors were impatient or a technical thing didn't work like we thought or Robert got sick or something. But we had something very real, we weren't lying, it just didn't work out like so many start-ups don't, but we tried for years to make it work. Not bullet-proof but much better for them than saying yeah we promised all this stuff and never had anything.
So bottom line, yes, I think they could know full well nothing will ever come of this, they may have known for years, and they could still drag it on exactly the way they are doing right now and it would make perfect sense. It's not a genius plan that guarantees them anything but it's far better than nothing and can only benefit them in the long run.
