I am thinking that it was probably a spur of the moment thing. ShareXCoin probably was not intended to be a scam from very beginning.  But after seeing the sheer amount of Qora and other altcoins he had in his hands, Zip realized his power, got greedy and succumb to temptation.  He realized he could manipulate the price easily since he was the largest holder.  Based on the blockexplorer info, he had over 450 million or 5% of qora at one point (It would be very tempting for anyone to do a short trade in his position, I suppose). Smiley  He got too smart for his own good. 

Now in retrospect, I guess there was a reason why zip wanted to be the first exchange to trade qora.

Also, remember that, by being the exchange operator, he had the power to observe every player's trading pattern (how much every Qora player has in his account and is willing to trade, and how low price he could push on Poloniex).

The problem was the users.  Smiley We gave him too much power without vetting the person first.   Cry