I have read they partnered with ORSoC. That seems a legit and long living company thats trustworthy. But i dont remember to read how much financially KNCMiner is invested into ORSoC. I mean how much money did they put into ORSoC? Partnering could mean that ORSoC is paying the development and creation of the chips out of their own pockets. Were there numbers how much money KNCMiner put into ORSoC somewhere? If its much, and the amount of money KNCMiner got with their preorders isnt much higher, it would be a pretty good sign that KNCMiner is legit. Because they cant run easily.
Only thing to consider then would be the time when the miners are in customers hands.
A partnership doesn't mean you'll put any money into the other company.
The way I see it, KNCMINER will handle the front of the house and ORSoC the back. KNCMINER with take care or orders and payments and ORSoC will bill them, as a supplier.
This way, the risky bit (debt) is with KNCMINER while the profits can stay with ORSoC. If things go pear shaped, bankrupting KNCMINER will be much cheaper (and the profits are more or less safe with ORSoC - I'm sure though that Sweden must have some rule like "money that has been paid by KNCMINER to X,Y,Z within the last xx months needs to be returned and shared amongst all the creditors/state/banks/whatnot", so it's not all bad).
Please understand (KS I'm sure you do) there is a reputational element.
For all intents and purposes time is a healer etc. but any misappropriation of funds or failure would cause significant problems for them in future. Being affiliated with Bitcoin, there is a public relations risk for them I'm sure they don't want a failure on their hands. It's more than other people's money...
Not just misappropriation of funds, but bad management.
The goose with the golden eggs is ORSoC. If KNCMINER fails as a company, ORSoC can find another shell company to sell same or similar miners, can take over the clientele and generally let KNCMINER die and the accumulated debt with it (if debt is the killer).
That's an "old" business strategy: keep the money safe from the debt.
Same if the directors decide to split. KNCMINER is dead and ORSoC can take over the business directly or indirectly.
That doesn't mean ORSoC's reputation will suffer one bit. It depends how they will spin it and what they will do about it (if they don't do anything, it will be bad, but if they offer to take over support, they'll be seen as saviors).
I´m not defending nor accusing one or the other side of this arrangement - but in case of illiquidity of KNC they can´t just drop the business and leave. There would be formal insolvency proceedings, a liquidator would be commissioned by court. One creditor (ORSoC) wouldn´t be favored over other creditors (e.g. customers). Financial transactions can be forced to take back for a time frame up to 3 month. If two companies are involved, both would could be hold accountable for fraudulent charges in court. Also the acting managers could be hold responsible personally even with there stakes in other companies.
Not saying, pre-paid money is safe, just saying, European Laws in case of bankruptcy are quite strict and although I know, that doesn´t make it impossible to get burned, it could be an advantage to deal with legit companies compared to deals with completely unknown people from literally anywhere in the world.
I went to Uni with a couple of guys that started up a student property business. They were popular guys at uni. They're actual method of acquiring housing, renovating and releasing equity to then acquire another property was sound. Rent was always covered as they chose an ideal point between the Uni and town and students were contracted for the entire year. They weren't satisfied and sought investors to expand. Without business sense or advice, they cheaped out on a local accountant that rather than advise, let them do whatever they liked. Unwittingly they misappropriated funds, added staff they didn't need (family members) and grew faster than they could handle. They had to seek investors constantly to meet the demands and expectations of investors already on board and wages (became a Ponzi). Furthermore houses they had promised were ready and rented weren't just there yet. Honestly they 'never meant to hurt anyone' originally, but they had delusions of grandeur. It ended messily. They had taken on other partners, created multiple companies within the main company, shifting liability here and there, never on themselves, new investors were courted and praised, old investors were treated like crap. They could never produce books so kept changing names and directors and basically ended up taking people for around £4 million allegedly the Financial Times said. Yes, the f***ing FT! P***ed investors have blogs about them. Two are motivated enough to chase these guys to the ends of the earth. Facebook pages hating on them, they are bankrupt, facing jail time once the receiver has worked out with what little bookkeeping there was, what the hell they were doing.
They were utterly irresponsible and some prople had invested their life savings. Their lives, quite justifiably are a living hell due to the greed hat blinded them.
When people are pissed and motivated enough they will never let go. These two and those directly connected to them have had their lives ruined. They'll never ever be leant money again. If you were to Google their names, all there is is bad press and they used to have a lot of great media.
I'm not going to mention their names, sad thing is they genuinely feel they're the victims and I'm sure monies have been siphoned somewhere from that equity. That said, the two were related as we're the family members involved and they really did loose the family home of their parents/aunt they they had grown up in.
KS please don't be so confident to believe the 'old strategy' outlined above works as seemingly as you state, i've witnessed such an attempt crash and burn badly. This is a new world of shared media and neither KnC or ORSoC want to be found misappropriating anything. ORSoC is a clean, reputationally strong 10-year old business without a blemish, regardless of whether legal liability is solely KnC's; associated moral liability by affiliation would lead to that name being tarnished if games were played. ORSoC's three acting as KnC's directors in an open KnC/ORSoC partnership are well aware of what is at stake. This is as high risk for them as it is for anyone else. Moreso, considering investors should only be risking funds they can afford, not debt themselves and have chosen preferred protected payment methods where possible.
Obviously risk exists and failure would lead to being advised as to how to keep existing assets in tact, hence knC assuming liability, and not ORSoC, but there is no way ORSoC escapes and continues untarnished and as the 'saviour' if something bad did happen. They don't want that at all, and neither does anyone else. ORSoC's business relies and revolves around their ability to be technically competent, not merely legal compliance...
and being just a tad bit more conservative than you. I arrive at almost the same figures. 
