Hon. Jim Rosenbaum’s amusing stock-backdating opinion

Minnesota U.S. District Court Judge James Rosenbaum is apparently a big fan of the Paul Newman/Robert Redford flick, The Sting. Or so it seems, at least, from his highly entertaining opinion in In re UnitedHealth Group (PDF link, thanks WSJ Law Blog!)

It is a poker axiom that if a player has his knees under the table and cannot tell who the sucker is, he’s it. In this game, according to plaintiffs, the patsy was either the hapless corporation, which in varying ways defendants controlled, or the corporation’s shareholders, whose equity provided the game’s antes and bloated pot.

That’s it. A claim has been stated.