Descender: Same situation for me, different company. I could barely afford to buy food, and got talked into "investing" $1200 by a JW family that had kind of become like a surrogate family to me (at 21.) I had to beg, borrow and (almost) steal, to get that kind of cash. Not long after they kind of weren't very much "family" anymore, because of course once I received my "materials" and discovered it was a pep talk on 8 tapes and a freakin' workbook, I just couldn't pitch that to anyone.
I later received a few phone calls from the attorney general, looking for people who had been taken in, but not made a dime themselves. They were putting together prosecution, but since I still believed the JWs were the "truth," I declined participation since, obviously, I couldn't treat my "brothers" that way (ie: sue them.) Stupid me. It would have been nice to get that money back, or at least a little non-monetary payback. It took me 16 months to pay it all back I was so poor.
Meh, I learned a lesson, that's for sure.