That’s also what I thought at first when I read about this story. I even thought this might be a scam attempt since he posted a bitcoin address and asked for donations.
But after reading his replies, I found that he shared a copy of the report he filed with IC3 which contains the transaction ID and the scammer’s address. You can also watch this interview on youtube in which he and his wife talk about what happened:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3PZKrCMkxsThey also organized a fundraising campaign on GoFundMe and they managed to raise ~$7k so far.
So, I believe this story is genuine and he did, indeed, get scammed.
Even though what happened is tragic, and I can
feelunderstand how they must feel, one just can't help but wonder how a person can be in the industry for so long and still behave like a total newbie. I watched the initial few minutes of the interview, he says that he realized that the mobile app is not associated with the desktop app, which means they don't have a mobile wallet, but he came to know abou that after the case, which is so naive for him not to confirm this before importing a wallet containing almost $1m worth of Bitcoin.
The only thing that I liked in that interview was the interviewer defending Bitcoin, saying that when something like this happens, it's not that the Bitcoin network is compromised or anything like that, but it's that someone has got access to your seed phrase and your wallet, and that is not Bitcoin's fault. Those who may watch that interview, if they are newbies like this guy, shouldn't think that Bitcoin is the reason why he lost his money; they should know it was his fault that he lost all his money.