Do you have any data to support that claim? What proportion of a VC firm’s returns come from a later round’s investors if a firm never has a liquidity event? (IPO or acquisition) And if the firm fails before then, how does the vc firm get paid?

A ponzi scheme is a way of stealing from investors, but it only works if the perpetrator can actually take cash out - in vc, I’ve never heard of a vc firm being able to take cash “off the table” in a later financing round, other than what is meant to be the terminal event for a vc investment, IPO / acquisition.