You think it would have made any difference if it came out earlier?
One of the top BFL guys is CONVICTED of scamming yet people happily send them funds. If it came out he'd just say it was a mistake in his past / he'd been misunderstood / his email was hacked and everyone would just send him money as before.
Very much this.
That's exactly the reason why no-one should ever invest more than he can afford to lose. The dirt almost always comes to light only after the money has disappeared.
The reason is basically here. Before the scammer actually runs with the BTC, his shills are active and the bystanders are "giving the benefit of the doubt". When I pointed out that pirate was a scammer back in April 2012 people threw a fit about how "I'm unprofessionals", and pirate shills a la gigavps were trying to convince MP to fire me because of it. Meanwhile I was proven right but the same shills are still here repeating that "I'm unprofessional". Why? Because I've professionally blown their cover off with some regularity on numerous occasions, and their profession is lying so that's what they do. They're greatly helped by the fact that most people involved are both new and naive, so they're more likely to believe a lie they see from five sockpuppets than to use their heads and discover where the truth lies.