Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner wrote an opinion about "prime bank" fraudsters.  It came out today.  The defendants and their cohorts pocketed $32 million from credulous victims whose greed apparently blinded them to the preposterousness of a super-safe investment that, as the scammers told them, would yield a 100 percent weekly return. 

The appeal turned on the sole question of whether the Securities and Exchange Commission properly won a summary judgment with circumstantial proof of the defendants’ scienter.  The court, noting the defendants’ invocation of the privilege against self-incrimination and the resulting presumption against them in a civil case, affirmed.  United States Securities and Exchange Comm’n v. Lyttle, Nos. 07-2466 & 07-2467 (7th Cir. Aug. 7, 2008).  Judge Posner commented:

One is reminded of the highwayman’s case.  Everet v. Williams (Ex. 1725), belatedly reported in Note, "The Highwayman’s Case," 9 L.Q. Rev. 197 (1893) . . . . One highwayman sued another, claiming that he was entitled to a larger share of the loot from a series of joint robberies.  The suit was dismissed, both were hanged, and the plaintiff’s lawyers were fined for having brought a suit "both scandalous and impertinent."

Our feed is reminded of that thing they say about honor among thieves.