This show of petulance carried a serious threar. The consortium could not invest without the partners' signatures. And the consortium was now publicly committed to doing the deal. By contrast, the partners had little left to lose. They could always, they intimated, let the fund blow up, seek cover in personal bankruptcy, and go get sevenfigure jobs on Wall Street. Rickards managed to cool the partners off, promising that the fin;ll version of the contract would be better. Then a group of them left for Skadden, Arps.