The inventor has convinced himself.

The helper only agreed.

I have seen this distinction a hundred times in my professional life, in every fraud I ever unwound, and it held true in my own family too.

There is almost always an architect and an accomplice, and they are made of different material.

The architect, the one who conceives the scheme, must first sell it to himself, must construct an entire private justification in which he is not doing wrong but merely taking what he is owed, correcting an unfairness, protecting an interest.

By the time the scheme reaches the courtroom, the architect genuinely believes his own story; that is what makes him so dangerous and so calm.