[n0us]

This is a true point. When you have a lot of money available to invest and you already have a diverse portfolio of high risk-reward investments I suppose it isn't such a big deal to spend 1m on an intelligent family friend. Still... they didn't get to be that wealthy by being careless with their money so I suppose we/I just don't know the full story.

[madaxe_again]

It's the other way around. They will have approached her, as they smelt an opportunity to use her, as they are still now. Egoistic people are really easy to manipulate, and you only have to stay one step ahead of the wake of your reality distortion field to pull it off.

The house of cards will come tumbling down at some point, but it won't matter, there won't be consequences.

I know this because I've spent enough time in the world of the mega-rich, had enough passes made at me by apparently well meaning robber barons, to know that this is how this works.

[pain_perdu]

The story as it was explained to me (by Tim Draper) was that Elizabeth grew up with Tim's daughter, Jesse, and asking for her first million from him was thus relatively easy.

[wavefunction]

I don't know, it seems like many people with a lot of money can afford to be frivolous and end up bailed-out by the government.

See the Wall Street melt-down in 2009. These are supposedly finance professionals who "lent to the wrong sorts" but that's their only job, determining who and who not to lend to, right?

There's a lot of "boys will be boys" among the upper-middle class and wealthy, whether those "boys" are boys or girls of these families.

[aj7]

I see a lot of old men, who once wielded a lot of power, being assiduously ego stroked by a young master, whose upbringing served to hone that skill to perfection.