Actually its very well known in the OTC room that Aethero went rogue.
Last we heard from Aethero was a $1000 deal for cash. Guy sent BTC first as Aethero was trusted and Aethero was due to send cash in the mail. Apparently the guy never received it.

Couple into that his massive nerdrage on Reddit about 'people out to get him and forcing him out of BTC' and the 910BTC ($79679) default on BTCJam, plus various other sources....

Yeah we haven't seen him in months. I did hear a rumour that he's using another handle though...