Hang on... a man uses extremely sophisticated and honed emotional and psychological techniques to swindle women out of around $10,000,000 (I believe that was the total figure they advised in the end) and somehow this is the women's fault?! He has a "business partner" and a "bodyguard" and private jets at his disposal and preys on emotionally vulnerable women and it is their fault?
It doesn't matter if they were gullible, it doesn't matter if you would or wouldn't get on a private jet after one date with a strange man...what matters is that he was able to make them believe, almost instantly, that he was genuine and loved them.
He set an elaborate web of lies and deception, he had layers and layers of women sending money to pay for the lie. He even brought along the mother of his child with his child (can't remember if this turned out to be true or if they were in on it).
Were they gold diggers? Why would it be wrong if they were? It's no different from chasing any other career. Not a career choice that I, or many of you I imagine, would make but a choice nevertheless. It's not a lifestyle I would want, I love my home conforts and couldn't be bothered with it, but I can see why it would appeal.
And the women who had lied to get more and more loans and increase their credit limits, it's like gambling isn't it? You have lost thousands. You borrow on a promise that that extra money will get you back all of it. And you are then in a spiral of fear and debt and chasing that "win" and you are on your own. I mean...essentially Cecile (I think it was her) was sent fraudulent payslips from a genuine company in order for her to borrow more money.
As for the final girlfriend, while I applaud her ingenuity in selling his clothes and keeping the money, that is in effect theft. I mean she could argue that she was just getting her money back and he willingly gave her the clothes to sell to send him the money, but she is keeping it. I don't know who could claim she was stealing from as I imagine it would be difficult to prove who had paid for what, but still she is part of the fraud at this point. Surely? Not that I blame her.
Please don't blame the women for this. Were they gullible? Yes. Were they careless in their checks of his background? Yes. Were they vulnerable? Yes. Were they blinded by their desire to be loved by this "charming" and rich young man? Yes. Are they wrong to have done so? No. It could happen to any of us, maybe on not such a grand scale, but still. Some of you will be naturally less trusting, less likely to fall for a scam on this scale, more likely to smell a rat from a mile off and not go near a man like this. But that is you and to be honest he wouldn't have gone near you as he would have realised he wouldn't be able to fool you. Which is great for you but doesn't mean you have to be so blind to the fact that not everyone is the same.
They don't necessarily deserve sympathy if you don't think that they do, but they also don't deserve scorn and abuse because they fell for a sophisticated scam artist. They are women who fell for a man's lies and charm and lost massively because of this. I do feel for them. I have been in a lost and lonely place where I was desperate to have someone to love me. I was lucky, and not as young or as pretty as these women, and while I hope that if this had been me I wouldn't have fallen for it, who knows? There but for the grace of God....it could have been me, or you, or someone that you know.
Please don't blame the women, or the victims, because in effect that's precisely what they are.