Everything about the timelines, his wife having talked about Zeek rewards, it's all circumstantial of course, but it would explain a lot. If it does turn out to have been a passthru for Zeek rewards, that'll be sad. Patrick still says it's not what they had discussed as being the method to make money though so either Pirate was lying (becoming more likely to me) or it's -still- not a ponzi. Either way, the lending rates in this community have got to equalize sooner or later. I think this pirate fiasco will help that a bit.
Part of the problem is the lack of existing financial world offering deposit accounts.