I don’t think vanilla options were invented by LTCM. But the pricing model and thereafter the popularity was.

Vanilla options are hundreds of years old, but Myron Scholes (of the ubiquitous Black-Scholes pricing model) went on to be principal at LTCM.

we need not confuse blowing up one's own portfolio with stealing ten billion dollars

we need not confuse the legitimacy or illegitimacy with the characters involved, since they both mismanaged capital and business

Far more money has probably been stolen with the "heads I win, tails you lose" approach -- just put on massive leverage and stick someone else with the bill if it blows up -- than has been stolen by all the Ponzi schemes in history.