Greetings @chbartist ,I'm sorry for the loss. The thing which i like is your positive attitude towards trusting people. I know that how much it's difficult to handle the situation when many of your friends invested with you with having trust on you.
That was a bad egg who made the situation worst and scam you, and then he ran with all the money. I really hate this kinds of people who break trusts.
I appreciate your patience after big loss. We should learn from our past and i believe that you learnt a lot from your experience. I really appreciate your concern in helping people with your experience.
Have a good day @chbartist