The main difference is the level of knowledge and intent on coming through with your promises. It’s one thing to pitch people saying “If I/we do X and Y, we’ll

The main difference is the level of knowledge and intent on coming through with your promises. It’s one thing to pitch people saying “If I/we do X and Y, we’ll make money.” It’s another if you make that pitch knowing you can’t possibly do it or that you know ahead of time you also need Z and don’t disclose that to your colleagues. Or maybe X and Y are possible but you have no intent to do it and just pocket the money and fly away. If you later find out something unexpected, ethically you should disclose that to partners before taking more of their time or money. Using your information asymmetry to take other’s money is unethical. Also, often the best con men won’t seem to have malicious intent because they don’t; they have purely selfish motives. Whether other people benefit or are harmed is irrelevant to their selfish benefit. I’ve seen this play out where yes-men/people just follow a psychopathic leader around because he rewards them for being members of his cult (as a means to keep them as followers, not because he cares about them). I would bet there were some very well paid people near the top of WeWork who knew it was a farce but were too well paid to sacrifice themselves and expose the truth early.