I'm guessing that they were easily able to prove that the money went into unrelated projects, rather than "just" being spent wastefully on things related to it.

I'm guessing that they were easily able to prove that the money went into unrelated projects, rather than "just" being spent wastefully on things related to it. Given that Keith Baker and Lee Moyer (the main game designer and illustrator, respectively) hired a lawyer to try and force Forking Path to give refunds on the project, some of the groundwork was also probably done by the time the FTC stepped in.