This reminds me of how chit fund scams worked in India in the 80s. Often people in the same family(cousins etc) would invest. Always in a fashion, where one of

This reminds me of how chit fund scams worked in India in the 80s. Often people in the same family(cousins etc) would invest. Always in a fashion, where one of them owed money to the fund, and the other was owed. If the fund went underwater, they would just go to the chit fund office, and do what was called book adjustment. Basically the fund would not give anything or take anything. On paper it would appear as fund gave money to one cousin, and took from another. In reality the cousin who was supposed to get money from the fund, would get the money from his cousin. And the fund, would mark in his ledger as the debt was paid. This way people didn't make losses.