Simple. They were ready to settle before the previous trial. Parker Folse said in court that the reason the settlement fell through was due to "re-trading" by another party. So there is concrete evidence that SG/EC were already willing to "not go to trial".
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For one thing, can anyone explain why they would expect S&G to advise not going to trial? Or why they would expect the EC to take some paltry amount of a couple of billion when there is clear evidence of 10’s of billions not accounted for. Near as I can figure at least 27 billion missing.
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S&G is not a bankruptcy firm, as they so succinctly put it to the court (and as a direct F.U. to WG&M); I think that the quote, to paraphrase, went something like:
"Judge, we are not Bankruptcy Lawyers; we are a LITIGATION firm" (or words to that effect).
And this was a not so subtle dig at RosenRAT and all of his hocus-pocus, "nothing up this sleeve" magic tricks.
"We will run circles around you guys all day, and you'll be dizzy watching us do that" was what Parker essentially said. At least I'm attributing it to Folse. I don't think that Sargent could say it with the charm that Folse could, but I might be wrong.
So to answer your question, why would S&G settle?
Because the price was/is right. That's why. Plain and simple. Or as plain and simple as these things can be, given the circumstances.
And if the price isn't right, WMI/A&M/WG&M, the SNHIT hedge funds, and everybody else under the sun will know what it's like to get PANTSED, PUNKED, (whatever you want to call it), by one of the premier LITIGATION firms in the country.
I'll take Parker over RosenRAT (and his crew) any day of the week. The Defendants won't know what hit them.
The reason that S&G doesn't have to go to trial is if they can:
a. sit down and talk with the other side;
b. explain to the other side why it is that so much money is owed; and most importantly
c. convince the other side (parties) to open up their collective wallets and pay a "fair" price so that nobody has to go through any of this.
And the flip-side is that S&G will also let their opponents know/understand that if their (collective) wallets are not opened up wide enough by the Defendants, S&G will get a jury of 12 to open up the Defendants' wallets wider than they ever thought imaginable.
That's why they would settle; because it would be under S&G's terms, not the other way around. Think back to when RosenRAT was announcing the deal that HE had gotten everybody to agree to. And then, "something happened," and RosenRAT had a lot of egg on his face, but no cigar . . . or at least no deal.
It's essentially a case of "pay me now, or pay me later. But if you pay later . . . it'll be much later but you'll also be paying me MUCH, MUCH MORE."
We know that an agreement CAN be reached; the question is if the Defendants are smart enough to pay a smaller amount now rather than a larger amount later.
True enough, the Defendants' judgment was questionable (at best), if not flat out terrible, when they decided to roll the dice and let SOME of their INSIDER TRADING SCHEMES and CONSPIRACIES be exposed for all the world to see. Who else besides the Defendants know what they swept under the rug? I suspect that S&G know an awful lot, or this thing would have been over months and months ago.
My guess is that Owl Crook and the other Defendants did NOT take their lawyers' advice and settle with an "appropriate figure."
And now that JMW says that the claims are colorable, the price has gone up. The price of a settlement would have collapsed had she said there are "NO COLORABLE CLAIMS."
But she didn't say that. Instead, what she said was, "are you going after only two (2) of them, or do you want all four (4)" (on a platter)?
She kinda telegraphed to everybody as to what her views were on the Insider Trading Activities of the Hedge Funds, and their Conspiracies with WMI/A&M. The Defendants have been a little slow to pick up her messages (and open their wallets just a little bit wider).
Only time will tell if the Defendants are as stupid as I am giving them credit for.
AI
