The very idea was ridiculous.
At most he had been careless.

Yes, he was certainly to blame.

He ought to have seen the trap so carefully prepared and into which he had walked as if blindfolded.

That extra $50,000 worth of stock, on which he had never received a cent interest, had been the decoy in a carefully thought out plot.

They, the plotters, well knew how ignorant he was of financial matters and he had been an easy victim.