I'd say the final nail in the coffin of VNC was when John Connor revealed that the secret angel investor that was supposed to be supporting the project was a lie. And surprise! The 'angel investor' was John Connor all a long!
Lead people to believe that there was outside financial interest in the project to pump the price and then pull the 'it's just a prank bro!'.
Very ethical.
It is not ethical to lie that an investor was supposely going to support a coin when there is none. It reminds me of Paycoin where the dev claims that a few of the big companies like Amazon were supporting the coin. It turns out to be a lie and Paycoin is dead.