I’m sure that all lawyers are crooks, etc, etc and that Milberg Weiss were doing naughty things while they went trawling for plaintiffs. 

In early October 1997, he bought 50 shares of Oxford Health Plans. Three weeks later, the stock nose-dived, and Mr. Vogel lost about $3,000 of his investment.  Still, Mr. Vogel reaped $1.1 million.

Apparently he was paid off to be the first plaintiff in a bunch of cases, which is illegal under a rather obscure law passed in 1995, —a law which the Milberg Weiss guys claim was the reason that the shenanigans in the bubble got so out of control. And somehow despite Ken Lay being the biggest contributor ever to a certain Texas based President, and being convicted of a gazillion counts, the next big indictment is of lawyers who go after fraud. Funny that.

But what I want to know about this NY Times story is how did lead plaintiff Vogel know that Oxford stock was about to collapse? And perhaps next time he could let me know too!