This is an astonishingly easy thing to consider, especially when thinking in terms of politics or power:
If you want to know where all the money went, look where all the money is. Don’t bother with stories if they don’t end in “…and there’s the money, riiiiight there,” because it is almost 100% certain that those stories are pure larcenous fiction.
If the money is gone, locate it. The person who has it, or the person-like entity who has it is the one who took it. (If someone who has a lot of money is telling you that someone who has no money took all your money, look at where the money is, not where the hand is pointing.)
All other stories are meant to cloud your mind.
I know in the vernacular, people sometimes say “follow the money,” but I suspect that. I think one ought to go right to the money, instead of trying to follow some torturous path.