Quote from: Inedible on August 28, 2012, 10:06:03 AM

Quote from: hgmichna on August 27, 2012, 10:19:06 PM

If one of the victims had said that, I might not have replied, but if you say it, a few words are in order.

I'll bite.

I 'invested' in this scheme.

Was I aware of what I was getting myself into? Yes.

Am I going to blame someone for the current outcome? No.

It's not like I didn't read payb.tc's warnings. It's not like he didn't say you stand to lose your entire gam...er...invstment.

Everyone's saying "a 3400% annual return rate - it's got to be a scam" - well I agree with you. Did I still take a chance, sure.

I don't think anyone who can think rationally could believe that there wasn't something fishy here, especially with no information as to how these returns were being generated.

I'm also as suspicious of people who are calling people like payb.tc scammers, for exactly the same reasons.

If you're a rational person who can think for themselves, how can people who operated passthroughs be considered scammers?

Some have said that they're scammers because they helped legitimise Pirate... how? Am I a scammer because I gambled? Did I legitimise him?

I already said that I would stay quiet in a case like yours, but if you reply explicitly, I will give my opinion and my guess at what a judge would say.

If you are a victim of the fraud and did not know it was a fraud, then you are without guilt. Sorry for your loss (unless you were among the lucky early investors who had made a gain through interest payouts or a timely withdrawal).

If you knew it was fraud, but gambled nonetheless, perhaps because you thought you came in early enough to make a profit before the scheme would fall apart, you are probably legally clean, but you have to clear the moral side with your own conscience.

If you knew it was a scam and set up a front-line business to profit from it, designing contracts that pushed all the risk on your clients, but left you with a riskless profit, then I would not be so sure whether a judge would absolve you of all guilt. My guess is that you would count as a conspirator and would have to bear some of the responsibility.

A word about the moral side, just generally, not as a reply to your message. An unpleasant sign of our times is that increasingly many people believe that anything that makes them money is good. They no longer even know what morale or honor means. At best they show ethical behavior only for fear of punishment. They have not understood or they wilfully ignore that our human civilization could not work if most people acted that way.