Although this all started by some, possibly well meaning, but extremely dumb and desperate balei batim, it has evolved into something really disgusting. They are claiming that this investment has the almighty 'daas torah' seal of approval. They are too embarrassed to put the name of the 'daas torah' out there (If it's legitimate, wouldn't it make sense to do so, so they can attract more investors?), but this daas torah has no problem using his rabbinical position to con others into investing, all under the guise of it being a chessed, with the arrangement that he get a cut of the action for his "charity", aka 'his own pocket'.
Rabbis should be the ones that protect their constituents from this exact type of con, yet he used the full authority of his position to further this sick cause, by getting more investors. Abuse of his power for personal gain.
Unfortunately there are so many gullible people out there, all you need is one nice, albeit naive, person to invest, and then the sales pitch becomes, "Well if this nice person invested, it must be legitimate". But when you have a "rabbi" involved, well then, you don't even need that, it's got a daas torah hashgacha!