The article is a bit long-in-the-tooth and muddles the details. The mark would be required to pay up front for expenses to cover (for example) drivers to be on site, or rooms/sites to rent for the projected project, or even extra personnel to be there on site. HOWEVER, instead of himself paying directly to whatever person or facility is mentioned, he/she would be advised to pay someone who would show up and pick up the money. The mark was told the person picking up the money would then continue on to make all the details come together. Not an uncommon action, actually, in most lines of production. The mark however didn’t know this was a scam start to finish, with the finish being only when the mark has been drained of all the mark is willing to cough up. Hope my explanation makes sense.
If it is a scam like that, I think what I always do when I hear stories like this: how much more money could people like this make if they put their talents to a legitimate enterprise?
There’s sociopathology in this, not just greed.