So Groupon's CEO mistake was that other people DISCOVERED his fraudulent activities? That's a great learning LMAO. It sounds very much he hasn't learned a thing.
It was very odd. I got the sense that he got frustrated with all his business ideas failing, ran with the one business idea that actually could succeed (which was basically a pyramid scheme dressed up as marketing), but never really got comfortable in his own head with running a pyramid scheme, so all sorts of psychological defense mechanisms come out when he talks about it. His other actions (like introducing Progressive Equity [1], and his subsequent startups Detour and Descript having legit if less successful business models) also suggest this.
[1] https://medium.com/detour-dot-com/introducing-progressive-eq...
Anyone who offers a deal like that can't be very ethical.
[1] https://www.quora.com/When-is-lightbank-starts-100k-for-50-a...
It's not much of a learning experience if all you get is rewards. Even if he's bitter that the rewards weren't as much as he wanted.