> After Dr Ruja's non-appearance in Lisbon, a point came when Igor Alberts, like Jen McAdam, asked to see evidence of the blockchain. He didn't get it, and in December 2017 he quit.
> I ask if he felt guilty, for having sold so many people a coin that didn't exist, and for having made so much money in the process.
> "I felt responsibility. Not guilt," he replies. "You can never be blamed for believing in something. I had no clue that it could be false. I didn't even know what is a blockchain… What doubt can I have?"
Versus the woman who lost a lot of money and convinced her friends/family to also throw away their money:
> By contrast, Jen McAdam says she bears a heavy burden of guilt. I ask her how much she earned from selling OneCoin and she says it was €3,000 - €1,800 of which she received in cash, and which she used to buy more OneCoin.
The line about “you can never be blamed for believing in something” is of course self-evidently ridiculous and not something Mr. Roberts would pretend to believe in any other context. But “I’m not a bad person, I was a hapless victim like everyone else” has a compelling logic when you’re profiting from a bad system.