A bit of Occam's Razor might be called for before suggesting hidden agendas and IP theft by foreign governments.<p>It sounds like a new program that overpromised, didn't plan well, and struggled to deliver would have been a similar experience.
FYI two days after writing this article he shut down his startup <a href="https://medium.com/@OmidAminfar/the-end-of-my-rewarding-startup-journey-27c2986eb110" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/@OmidAminfar/the-end-of-my-rewarding-star...</a> so while I am not disputing the accuracy of his statements there may be other factors as work as well.
I think you should only call a program an accelerator if they invest at the start in all participants. Otherwise a word like incubator or competition probably makes more sense.
There's no barrier-to-entry for a shop to call themselves an "accelerator."<p>Reputation*3.<p>YC, 500 and some others. Doing due-diligence, building rapport with key people and managing expectations can help. Also, big names have a lot more to lose (rep) and so tend to be safer bets.