conned

To put it bluntly, the population of this oil-rich nation has been conned on a colossal scale for many years.

"As a result of their unlawful actions, defendants have been unjustly enriched to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars in value, while Mr Musk has been conned along with the public," it says.

Anthony Farrer, owner of the Timepiece Gentleman, conned dozens of customers out of over $5.6 million, according to the guilty plea.

A related problem is that, once someone has fallen for the lies of an apparently extremely mentally disturbed leader, it often feels embarrassing to acknowledge he or she was conned.

She had conned people into believing she would inherit huge sums of money on her 25th birthday, and that they would be richly rewarded for giving her loans.