Chief Judge James M. Rosenbaum has issued a very short opinion in the UnitedHealth Group options backdating litigation, denying in full the defendants' motion to dismiss the complaint.

The five page opinion describes the alleged options backdating scheme at UnitedHealth as reminiscent of the 1973 film classic, The Sting. Movie buffs will remember that in The Sting, Paul Newman and Robert Redford employed a scheme involving “past-posting,” or betting on horse races after the results are already known.

Indeed, though my tea leaf reading skills still have not been verified, the following passage should give pause to the defense attorneys in the case:

Plaintiffs’ claims are nowhere near as complex as defense counsel suggest. If plaintiffs are correct, this case is incredibly simple. Plaintiffs claim defendants were playing a game with a stacked deck. When awarded options, with deliberately selected grant dates which were already in the money, defendants were playing a game they knew they could not lose; and, unsurprisingly, defendants won.

The lead plaintiff in the UnitedHealth litigation is CalPERS and lead counsel is Lerach Coughlin Stoia, Geller Rudman & Robbins.