It could well be that the client companies saw enough red flags to decline doing business with them, even though the employees fell for the ongoing deception an

It could well be that the client companies saw enough red flags to decline doing business with them, even though the employees fell for the ongoing deception and the sunk-cost fallacy - it should be noted that this was a time of great uncertainty and certain people would have been loath to walk away from what seemed like a legitimate job when there were few other reasonable options easily available.