> in what universe does it make any sense for the bank to go to the store or stores you purchased from to demand the money back rather than to you, the borrower

> in what universe does it make any sense for the bank to go to the store or stores you purchased from to demand the money back rather than to you, the borrower? It's a common legal strategy to sue those with deep pockets, regardless of whether they bear the greatest responsibility, in order to get more money. Makes perfect sense because they (the store in your example) actually have the cash. Are you going to sue the gambler or the casino? Another strategy is aggregation. If you can combine cases into a single case, the payout can be larger for similar effort - but once again this depends on ability to pay. Going one step further, if the seller is part of an illegal cartel or pyramid scheme, the government might be able to justify seizing its assets, or perhaps collecting punitive damages.