No I'm not sure, but that videos and website look expensive. I know the magazine ad didn't need to be paid in advanced.

Video and website take time, not money. It's a good investment for an unemployed or bored person in a depressed economic area pulling a $50K Kickstarter scam.

The guy does seem to have some skills in marketing and websites, so a lot of it was probably just time.

I think $10,000 is a reasonable figure. $2000 on chess.com (assuming that's correct) and let's say $2000 on chess24, a full page magazine ad that might not have been paid for, some expensive chess boards and chess pieces. translations, maybe voice overs. There was a video of actors endorsing it.

Also possible the ads were paid for with stolen credit cards or counterfeit checks.

Since the website and marketing are totally anonymous/fake people, the ad buys and Kickstarter likely were fake IDs also.