Many of the things he said about the co's were not completely true.
I can't think of any of them that weren't scams, but I don't know everything he played. Tony has a badly flawed character. He's very immature and very insecure. Sadly, he really was a good trader. He didn't need an "edge", but seems to have felt he had to have one. There was no reason for him to fall in with Royer; it was just plain stupid. And now he's paying a very heavy price for that.