Because he had worked with exch and even received donations from him, I trusted him. But apparently, that wasn’t enough. He turned out to be a real scammer who was just looking to take advantage of someone before disappearing.
You seem to have misinterpreted his relationship with eXch.
He only developed the SimpleX bot on his initiative, probably with the idea of creating a universal solution, and at the same time, he would have a certain profit through the eXch affiliate partner program.
At the same time, eXch also voluntarily sent donations (not only for this project) as part of their initiative to support promising ideas.
Somehow, you connected that he enjoys the trust of eXch, which was wrong.
I don't know what amount it is, but it doesn't seem logical to me that someone who received 0.3 BTC as a gift cheats someone else for an amount significantly smaller than that.
Also, I would not immediately accuse paid2 of complicity here, he already launched affiliate signature campaigns to promote his referral link from eXch and Orangefren.