It is more likely to be a slippery slope where you begin completely believing your technology will work and then over time it becomes more and more fraudulent.

It is more likely to be a slippery slope where you begin completely believing your technology will work and then over time it becomes more and more fraudulent. At the beginning I think she completely believed the technology would work. After a year and no progress, what do you do? You raise more money and double down. Fast forward another couple of years, do you admit you were wrong and tell the investors the bad news? Do you take the humiliation of the failure? In her case she doubled down again and although must have known by now it would never work, she carried on with the pretence. Like a kid caught in a lie keeps on making more lies to keep the façade going.