I didn't have all the information that's coming out now. People tried. Read the article. The last investment was finalized days after someone raised concerns after realizing we didn't contact 70% of our customers.
I was someone at the bottom of the totem pole who tried to do my job and ask what questions I could. I certainly noticed a lack of analytics or basic traffic/revenue/customer data. Retroactively, it was obvious that this was essentially a fake job, but I couldn't piece this together and there wasn't enough company-wide transparency.
Decent salary, but that's not the point. I'm distraught to realize I spent 5 months on nothing, and it's not something I'm proud to have or explain on my CV. It's cruel how much money these people throw away, but we were misled into thinking it was real. I wouldn't have taken this position to support such a scumbag.
FWIW, I would wait on returning any money (or saying anything at all, really) + talk to a lawyer with experience in bankruptcy (their's + yours).
My guess is you can keep all/most of the $. They were fraudulent to you + the company is now evaporating. Sounds like you still need to pivot, but at least you can do so with $ in the bank and no black marks.
Not sure if you're being serious, but if you were an early investor, isn't it on you to make sure the business is legit? Anyone can be misled by a fraudster, but some responsibility lies with the VCs and angel investors throwing money at these companies and enabling this sort of thing to happen.