So cousin Stanley was involved with the group of lawyers from Chicago, behind everyone’s back? Guy sounds like a complete douche.
And your family is or was Jewish, but it was your wife’s uncle who got a pension from Israel?
So the coincidences are a) two guys named Stanley, each who gave you a screwing over,
and b) a mysterious connection vis-a-vis the Chosen People?
What is it with family screwing family - my mother’s Uncle Charlie decided (for an entire wing of the family) that no one was going to buy (dairy products for heavens sake) with a cow on the front - so he sold their share of the stock. Thus the NY cousins are richer than rich and my mother’s side - well, is not.
Such a shame that family can end up treating each other worse than strangers do.
Reminds me of those two cozy little sayings - The love of money is the root of all evil and Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.