Whether it’s a highly leveraged hostile takeover, a fuel hedging scam, or some CDO/derivatives bundling scheme it’s imho not very useful to get down in the weeds as to the whys and hows. Unless you are LE investigating the specifics and legalities to build a case.
Plainly speaking, a scam is a scam is a scam.
FWIW, ‘The Big Short’ was a fun movie to watch. But there are endless variations on the tune. The big learning point is that people often somehow get away with it and all one can do is not accept the premise and not let them get YOUR money.