Alma Mater Dear

Why couldn't I have thought of this?

A former USC lecturer who taught in the university's business school pleaded guilty Wednesday to conning his students and their parents out of $1.5 million by promising huge returns on real estate investments in Chicago and Las Vegas.

Barry Landreth, 37, faces up to 20 years in federal prison on a single felony count of wire fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced June 4.

Landreth, a 2001 graduate of USC, was living in Coto de Caza and working as a part-time lecturer when he was arrested a year ago. He also was running Webster Realty Investors Inc., which billed itself as a diversified real estate investment and development company with projects nationwide, according to authorities.

More to the point, who the hell are these people who bite on this? Apparently Landreth offered a 190% return in 45 days...people, please, give me a break. They deserved to lose their shirts: they were buying into a Ponzi scheme and they knew it. Except, of course, Landreth was, how do I put this, an idiot:

Instead, Landreth deposited $718,000 of their money into his personal bank account, officials said. He used much of the remainder of the funds for personal expenses, prosecutors said, including $500,000 to buy and care for show jumping horses, a $73,000 Cadillac Escalade and $52,000 for brokerage accounts in his and his wife's names.

Lando, my man, you have to at least pay off some of the people. What did you think was going to happen? Why weren't you salting this all away into a bank account in the Bahamas? Aye yi yi, so many questions, so little time before he's imprisoned.

I'm guessing the law enforcement radar's going to be up now for Trojan alums trying to pull a fast one...guess I should lay low.