Two new California state court suits filed by Grais were the subject of a Sunday New York Times column that noted his strategy of steering clear of hard-to-prove fraud allegations. But there are still a raft of defense firms standing between Grais and a big payday.

When we think of predatory lending, we usually think of victims who are relatively poor and unsophisticated. But a group of luxury resort homeowners in Nevada, Idaho, the Grand Bahamas, and Montana are moving forward with claims that they, too, were taken advantage of by a predatory lending scheme orchestrated by Credit Suisse and Cushman Wakefield.