At least Hashking fessed up, and is trying to make things right. Most people in that situation would just disappear.
I'm not so sure about this. It looks like the exact same stalling tactics that both Pirate and NCKrazze used when their scams fell apart. I suspect the purpose is to diffuse the anger people feel and reduce the risk that someone will go to the trouble and figure out where they live to throw a molotov cocktail through the front window of his house or whatever. Consider that Hashking was probably contemplating and composing his "I'm broke" message for the past several days. It should have been a lot more thorough. All we got was a "mea culpa, I will make it right." If he was sincere about making things right his message would look more like this:
* I fucked up. I apologize from the bottom of my heart.
* Since I am the one that fucked up, I will go to extraordinary lengths to make it right for people whose trust I violated
* I owe xxx amount of bitcoins right now
* I have yyy amount of fiat and zzz amount of bitcoins to pay back my creditors immediately
* I have the following sources of income: (mining, real estate investment, real job, etc)
* I have the following assets: gold, silver, firearms, vehicles, etc..
* I will make my first good faith payment of xxx bitcoins in three days as soon as my money gets to Mt Gox and I can buy some coins
* I'm asking my creditors how I can make this the least shitty for them and am soliciting opinions
* I'm sorry
Instead we got a bunch of vague bullshit about faulty computer hardware returned for a refund with volatile bitcoin prices and so on.
One thing I can say that Hashking did right is that he mentioned a 3 year payment window. This will keep his marks complacent for longer than NCKrazze's and Pirate's, who both promised repayments in days or weeks. By the time his creditors will accept that they were fucked, Hashking's scam will be ancient history, so from a personal safety standpoint this is a smart move for him as it allows their anger to gradually flare out.
We should also ask what motivation an admitted scammer will have three years from now to pay anyone back. To save his "reputation?" His reputation is irreparably damaged at this point.
The only other motivation I can think of if he were going to pay us would be to calm a guilty conscience. But if that were what's driving him, his announcement would have looked more like the outline that I posted above.
CONCLUSION: We're fucked, and Hashking is trying to play us.