( May 21, 2024, 8:31 AM EDT) -- CHICAGO — A panel of the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld an Illinois federal judge’s decision to award priority to individual investors over a private lender to receive proceeds from the liquidation of assets related to a Ponzi scheme, finding that the Illinois Mortgage Act establishes that payment cannot extinguish a preexisting security interest without a valid release, which did not occur....