CbC, To answer your first question, yes, I hire a law firm to do an extensive background check on EVERY key person in every investment I make (if I haven’t worked with them before). But I admit that’s fairly unusual – but I’m a professional investor and invest other people’s money as well as my own so it’s part of my fiduciary duty to do these sorts of things.
It’s funny, you view people who question your “purity” in these transactions as “beating up on you.” I think we merely view it as placing a small bit of the blame where it deserves to be placed: with you. We’re not beating up on you, we’re just calling it like we see it. You say tomato, I say tomahto.
I think EVERY poster reading this agrees that you and all of your co-plaintiffs have been wronged and should be very angry with James, et al. No doubt about it and I don’t think ANYONE here thinks otherwise or “secretly admires the fact that they pulled it off”, to use your words. That you would think this possible shows just how little time you’ve spent on this board. Here’s the problem: YOU’RE here and posting; James, Hendrix, et al are not. If they were I can assure you that we’d be pillorying them with abandon… you’re getting off easy, frankly.
But, not to worry. Even if you end up BK, you’re still quite lucky: over 3 billion people on this planet live on less than $2 per day and tens of millions die of starvation every year. You’ve had the good fortune to reap your God’s favor and live in the United States while others are clearly in His great disfavor. In the whole scheme of things your problems aren’t so great, are they?
