He relieves that certain sort of money, quite convincingly. Early on, I tried to intervene, to warn people that they'd never see that $10,000, $20,000, or even more than that, ever again, let alone get the fantastic returns that he very compellingly yet vaguely described, never on paper and never to the point of there being any legal consideration, always just beyond actionable. Under the law, his “investors” just gave him the money. I looked into it.
They believed him then, believe him still and think I'm the bad guy. Some have continued to give him money. He lives very well, two Mercedes-Benz, Italian suits, you name it.
The guy would've knocked the corporate world dead, just brilliant, very persuasive, very personable. But, no, he prefers whatever it is that he's doing.
I've kept in touch out of curiosity, just to see how long it takes for somebody to do him grievous bodily harm, but nothing so far. He'll likely go to his grave with all the hangers on that he's fleeced still believing in him and expecting their windfall.
It's just the most amazing thing. It's as if he hypnotizes them.
The thing that's amazing about a con artist is that he puts a lot of work into it and could do very well in a legitimate endeavor...but something in his nutty personality actually makes him enjoy the thought that what he's doing is wrong, illegal, immoral and fraudulent, and I think it even makes him enjoy the risk of getting caught. We're talking crazy, after all; functional, but crazy.