Update (January 21, 2014): The money quote: “In September 2013, immediately after informing this Court that he did not have the resources to pay sanctions, that he had not paid rent on his office for four months, and that his adult son was on food stamps, … Butler spent $1,718.46 on restaurant meals, liquor, yoga, tanning, and kettlebell equipment….[I]n March 2013, Butler claimed that he spent $1,500 per month just on groceries.”
Update (January 15, 2014): From time to time, Minnesota Litigator goes out on a limb and makes predictions. Some predictions, I will be the first to admit, are not impressive. The one below (“this is going to end badly for Mr. Butler”) appears to have been correct but unimpressive. (There is still the question of where the reverberations of this derailment will end but no question this downfall is bad and will remain bad (or worse)).
Original Post (November 26, 2013): (under the headline “William Butler and the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Austrian Economists, Inc. (?)”): This is a trainwreck. Mr. Butler’s (professional) meltdown within the far more immense (residential mortgage lending) meltdown has been covered previously here.
Where will it end? It is not much of a stretch to suggest that it will end badly. But, with the recently raised question of whether Mr. Butler filed tax returns at all for a few years, comes the first hint that this could end up for Mr. Butler at a federal correctional facility. It is ironic that many Americans have eagerly and impatiently called for criminal charges against those at the epicenter of the global meltdown. And maybe it will only be the self-anointed freedom fighter for the foreclosed who will feel the full force of justice.