It's annoying, to be sure.  I think the reason why people can get away with something like this is because people have an unhealthy trust in authority and authoritative entities.  Now, sometimes you can't check into everything, I understand that.  But see how this relates to the popular "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" platitude.  The person who really believes that is setting himself up for trouble because he holds what he perceives 'extraordinary' to special standards whereas in theory he holds the 'ordinary' to lesser standards.  That makes it open season to be taken advantage of by those trying to smuggle things by you, since you're more inclined to accept that which you already accept or already believe.

I would say that all claims require evidence, and an 'extraordinary' investment scheme is validated in the exact same way that an 'ordinary' one is investigated.  He got away with it by being ordinary.