Methinks, Michael, that you need some bran flakes for lunch today. A bowl of that cereal followed by prunes for dessert.
If I happen to go to the bank today and the bank gets robbed and I get shot during an exchange of gunfire between the bank's security guards and the robbers, am I at fault for getting killed or wounded?
My intent for going to the bank was to conduct my own financial business.
The intent of the robbers was to obtain money by an illegal act and were willing to use violence to gain that money.
The intent of the security guards was to protect their employer's property and safeguard the premises.
In a court of law, the robbers would be liable because of their bad intent, i. e., to commit a criminal act.
My heirs, after a criminal conviction, might go into the civil courts and sue the bank robbers, the bank, and insurance companies and claim an award based upon damages or negligence, or deprivation of something. And a good lawyer might be able to win a monetary award.
If you take the example of big loss' disabled friend who may have been victimized by Da Boyz in this most-probable investment game, that disabled person should be able to go into the courts with a competent attorney and plead that Da Boyz had criminal intent, i. e., to obtain money by fraudulent means, and they were liable for his losses because they defrauded him. Of course, if the US District Attorney for Oregon was awake, active, and aggressive, it would help the civil case if Da Boyz were investigated, indicted, tried, and convicted on federal criminal charges first.
But to place the entire burden for the loss upon the victim when on the face of it, it appears that perpetrators were always running an investment game for the purpose of personal enrichment without any evidence of performing for the benefit of the investors, there might be a ripe case of white collar crime that could result in investigations, indictments, trials, and convictions. A good, hot, expose by a talented writer of a major media firm either in print on on television might be a good catalyst to wake up state and federal securities regulators and appropriate prosecutorial staffs. All IMHO.
AI
