Recommendations were made based on past performance of the principles and these appeared sound.  AM and friedcat had a relatively long history in bitcoin mining and equipment and it was their credibility which lead to any recommendation of AMHash.   Let's not beat up on one another over this; it is pointless.  Why don't you 2 set up an exchange commission for bitcoin related investments and set up some basic accounting and reportability criteria for listings?  That would be awesome.