Chapter 11 bankruptcy is not used exclusively for fraud and/or scams and/or similar, however Chapter 11 bankruptcy can be used when this is the case.
My understanding of the situation is that HF sold (and received payment for) some number of ASIC miners that they did not end up delivering. Receiving payment for something that is never delivered, is in my eyes a scam. I understand that sometimes business does not quite go as planned, however I do not believe that this changes the question of if I believe that HF is a scam.
I understand that all start-ups are very risky, and I understand that some very high percentage of all small businesses/start-ups fail. However if person x were to run a start-up, that start-up were in incur some number of obligations, then the start-up were to fail and not honor those obligations, then I would not trust that person x, nor anyone else that was going around saying that it was appropriate to trust the start-up.
No bankruptcy court is going to grant an insolvent scam's motion to be put in Chapter 11 (keep some key execs and reorganize) rather than Chapter 7 (fire management and liquidate everything ASAP).
You are calling every bankrupt business a scam, yet that is not the definition of the word.
Are you familiar with the legal concept of "best efforts?" You don't seem to be. Here you go:
http://www.adamsdrafting.com/what-does-best-efforts-mean/If Person X at Company Y put in their best efforts, yet the firm fails (due to business conditions out of their control), it's not a scam.
You may wish to expand the definition of scam until it comports with your subjective, incomplete, counterfactual "understanding" but that demonstrates nothing more than your inability to converse in good faith.
A scam requires (criminal) intention to not honor obligations. HF did no such thing. They wanted to be the Intel of BTC, not your punching bag and object of hivemind defamation.
Let's look at the story of VIAcoin and btcdrak.
He went against the Gavinista hivemind by opposing XT/Classic.
So now those dead-enders use VIA's (relative) lack of success to bash him with the "scam" cudgel:
https://www.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/4vgwe7/so_on_the_expiration_date_of_the_hk_stalling/You might not be using bold letters and screaming incoherent rage like ydtm, but the basic action is the same:
ydtm: "VIA didn't make its long-shot gamblers rich --> ZOMG SCAM"
you: "HF didn't make its long-shot gamblers rich --> ZOMG SCAM"
Some people call everything that they don't like reading "spam." You two do the same thing with the other handy bullet word of character assassination.
Ironically, if HF was a scam, they'd have kept most of the BTC instead of spending it on hardware development and business expenses.