Jade:  You're quite right on this one. I knew Mr. Shockley for years and both bought and sold income properties using him as a broker.  A good friend of mine lost tens of thousands of dollars to Mr. Shockley's criminal scheme.  I call it "criminal" because he has pleaded guilty to his crimes...they are an established fact.

Obviously, to be a "con-man", since it stands for "confidence", you have to be able to fool people into have confidence in your integrity. I was certainly fooled by Mr. Schckley as, unfortunately, were the many  persons who lost money to his thievery.