John (Peter Manglaviti) was essentially the public leader of NxT, he was the one who represented NxT's booth at several public conferences / expos and seminars and he was the man the public dealt with. For all intensive purposes, while he may not had been a developer, he was essentially the public face of NxT. He was the man the public saw at anything NxT and he was the one persuading people to buy it.
You assume it's just the BTC stolen. Probably ran off with all the NxT he collected as well. You assume "John" (Peter Manglaviti) is his real identity. Linkedin profiles are easily just as faked as Facebook profiles. The best fake linkedin profiles are those which combine truth with outright lies.
John wouldn't be the first person who thinks he can scam investors and get away with it. After all, has the Visacoin guy gone to jail yet? Has anyone actually gone to jail? Even just one person?
The statue of limitations for these sort of crimes is 7 years or less. The time to investigate, acquire the evidence, book a court room hearing, et cetera, can take years, that's even IF the police can be bother to actually to issue a warrant. They generally don't go after 'small fish' like John.
The only people who have been arrested in crypto currencies has been people like Charlie Shrem and mainly due to drugs / DEA. I've yet to hear of a crypto scammer who has gone to jail, even with their personal details wide out in the open.
This guy is the major public face of NXT.
He was at the convention booth promoting NXT as the public face of NXT.
Again - proof NXT is to the core a scam - he knew it and wanted BTC only.
Lots of people have represented NXT.....and John has represented more than NXT as well. Johns done NXT promo at Miami Bitcoin, TrekCon and PayExpo, so he's been present at less than 50% of the conferences NXT has attended, and always as part of a team. There's no way i'd call him the public face of NXT, let alone leader.
He and Cointropolis do have their own agenda, but up until now Cointrop and NXT worked well together. Hopefully still will in the future.
Personally, I find it very hard to believe that he ran the scam himself. Even if he netted the full 400 BTC he was aiming for, thats still only $240,000.
It's enough to have to run quite a long way to get away, but not enough to get you very far.
But: He and Cointropolis stand to gain so much more than that over the next few years, as crypto hits the mainstream. Even if NXT disappeared up it's own Genesis block tomorrow, Cointropolis could move on to represent other coins, 'coz thats what they do: alt-coin PR agency.
Being caught scamming so openly would be the end of their reputation and business, and that biz could be huge.
Johns not stupid, I can't see him throwing away massive longterm potential for short term gain and a massive shitstorm.
I'm going for the sneaky NXT insider/hack theory, until I see any actual evidence one way or the other.