I'm honestly just amazed someone managed to steal thousands of machines without AM noticing. This couldn't have happened in an quickly, it must have taken all day to load them up. Sounds like AM hired some sketchy company to host their miners without anyone from AM watching over them. This hosting company must have had nothing to lose if they were willing to abandon their building and destroy their reputation for ~$1m worth of miners. (which will probably earn ~$500k over their lifetime)
I really doubt this is a scam because AM/FC has shown integrity matters more than profit time and time again (200 btc fee returned, prisma refunds, etc) , however the lack of professionalism cannot be ignored. Even if they do somehow make it out of this mess, I hope FC steps down and replaces himself with someone more qualified.
If for example AM was hosting their miners with a 3rd party and stopped paying hosting fee's over the Chinese New Year, the 3rd party might be inclined to withhold access to the miners and instead mine for themselves until payment is made.
This in no way justifies what appears to be going on, but instead just offers a slightly more plausible scenario.