Judge Wright definitely had phasers set to kill here. But these guys aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer. Steele (AKA "BittorrentBull") was mocking Judge

Judge Wright definitely had phasers set to kill here. But these guys aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer. Steele (AKA "BittorrentBull") was mocking Judge Wright on Twitter over a news article about his bankruptcy not very long ago. I've never seen a smart lawyer do anything like that. In the order, I note that Judge Wright used all the most devastating magic words. In addition to discussing their "moral turpitude," as you mentioned, he also said they "defrauded the Court." Ken predicted that might happen and wrote about how important that may be later: http://www.popehat.com/2013/04/02/prenda-laws-attorneys-take-the-fifth-rather-than-answer-judge-wrights-questions/ http://www.popehat.com/2013/04/02/prenda-laws-attorneys-take... "The fraud issue is of such huge importance because there is an exception to the attorney-client privilege from discovery and testimony in cases in which the attorney is alleged to be a participant in the fraud. Even the attorney work product exception from discovery falls by the wayside in such cases." So this order is devastating not because of the small monetary sanction. Rather, Judge Wright methodically destroyed all of their defenses, threw them to the wolves, and then rounded up every other carnivore in the country to join the wolves in taking a bite out of them.