If Patrick had only classified his investment thing as a managed hedge/mutual fund, with returns based on his investment skills as opposed to fixed interest "savings account" style returns, none of this would have been a problem. Losses would have had to be taken by the customers instead of Patrick, and his returns would have been consistent with the average hedge fund (lesson: don't invest in bitcoins, people. You'll save time by just flushing your money down the toilet).
the "average" hedge fund managed by a well-educated, certified professional typically grow at 3% per
year.
Bitcoin "investments" claim to be capable of 5-7% per
week, then typically collapse a month later with the 'manager' disappearing with all the 'investors'' money.
Truly, it's the dirty fiat currency that has the problem here.
Although Moody's and S&P were hammered in 2009 for not downgrading US debt sooner, they do a very thorough review of a company's financials before issuing a rating. I would be shocked if Patrick's review was more than a couple of PM's. "Hey man, is your investment going to collapse?" "No, dude." "Good enough, AAAA+++ rating for you!"
His ratings were focused on those offering them & not their particular offerings & the first thing to ascertain by him would be a real life ID I assume, with passport, driver's license, SS for US issuers, utilities bills in the same name & all confirmed by a rigorous Skype proof of docs recorded session, for those borrowers who are now in default I expect he would be prepared to release this info to those who lent to them so that ppl can take action against them if they wish otherwise what was the point, I will request this for those who ripped me off soon.