Two years after Dallas billionaire (and former Thompson & Knight partner) Trevor Rees-Jones bought out his old friend Bobbitt Noel's minority stake in Chief Holdings, Rees-Jones turned around and sold the company for $2.6 billion. Unfortunately for him, a Houston state court jury said Monday that Rees-Jones breached his duty to Noel and cleared $360 million in improper profits.

Shareholders smelled fraud when Cano's estimates of its reserves turned out to be off by 10 million barrels. But a Texas judge said they had plenty of warning and tossed their case.

After thumbing through Webster's Dictionary, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff rejected arguments by Bank of America that prosecutors were misinterpreting a key provision of the Financial Institutional Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act in order to pursue fraud claims against the bank.