WHEN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT sued Houston financier Charles Hurwitz in 1995 for more than a billion dollars, it seemed to many people that one of America’s most corrupt and notorious businessmen had finally been run to ground. He was accused of looting one of the biggest savings and loans in the state, United Savings Association of Texas, whose 1988 failure had cost taxpayers $1.6 billion. It was the usual, dreary story of eighties-era chicanery, said the government’s lawyers... Subscription required