WHAT'S A LITTLE FRAUD BETWEEN FRIENDS?THE LEGISLATURE IS HELL-BENT ON GUTTING ARIZONA'S STIFF SECURITIES STATUES

Even if the Duzys could still sue, they could recover no damages for the turmoil and heartache they are now suffering by having to sell their house.

Eliminating mandatory treble damages and requiring proof of a "pattern" of racketeering practice will make it unlikely that many other fraud victims will be able to press their claims in the future, Bunch says. "It is an extraordinary chill on people's right to go to court."

Albert Henderson, a 70-year-old retired Sun City businessman who was born on the Fourth of July, agrees.

Henderson invested some of his wife's retirement money in the Prudential Bache oil and gas partnerships, and lost about $35,000. The couple is well enough off that the loss will not cripple them, he says.

But it will take tough laws like those in Arizona if he is to recover any of the lost money, Henderson says, and he is outraged that lawmakers are now moving to protect "swindlers."

Before he retired, Henderson himself was an attorney, first for American Airlines and then for the Hertz and Avis car-rental companies. He hopped around the country negotiating business deals and airport contracts. He does not consider himself an unsophisticated investor, but he says he was taken in by the Prudential Bache partnership.

"I'm not as much going to the poorhouse over this as I am annoyed and irked that this looks like something that was concocted as a swindle," he says. "They ought to leave the law the way it is, but they [the securities industry] have the brass to say some of our guys got caught; let's put the arm on the legislature to take care of them.