A surgeon saved 177k over 10 years? Something else might be going on here.
You probably lose a lot of basic savvy when you're insulated from "the real world" for decade after decade (undergrad, medical training, residency, surgical training, high paid private consultancy, etc).
"Is it an obvious fraud? No, I'm too smart to fall for that. Therefore, I'll double down, again"
You can see it all over crypto today.
The fun part is that until a higher authority like the government steps in, we're going to have a lot of these schemes online for a long time. Herbalife and the MLMs use the tactic, crypto is just another; the future is ripe for people that use Madoff's tactics.
(Also, there must be a specific name for this tactic, and I would love to know what that it. But google isn't really coming up with anything for me. If you know, please comment and let me know? Thanks!)
What's amazing is that this person put his name in the WSJ as a gullible fool who can now be targeted by spearphishing scams (including that Crypto Recovery scam that has was even spamming HN recently) and shunned by his peers and potential clients.