My first thought upon reading a new shareholder derivative complaint accusing directors and officers of JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America of facilitating a pyramid scheme by extending a total of $1.2 billion in credit to the controversial nutrition company Herbalife was that it was an interesting new development in the weird hedge-fund showdown between Herbalife short-seller William Ackman of Pershing Square and Herbalife investor Carl Icahn. My second thought, when I noticed that the pro se plaintiff was a lawyer named Daniel Ravicher, was, "Wait. That can't be Dan Ravicher of the Public Patent Foundation."

But it is. The well-known IP public interest lawyer, who's co-counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union in the Myriad gene patent case now before the U.S. Supreme Court, is moonlighting as a private lawyer in the Herbalife derivative suit and in a companion fraud complaint against Icahn, also filed Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan. In a phone interview Ravicher told me that he's stepping out of the realm of intellectual property because he's convinced Herbalife is taking advantage of unwary, unsophisticated consumers. His girlfriend, he said, knows someone who became an Herbalife distributor and nearly became one herself. "This struck a chord with me personally," he said. "Herbalife is hurting people."

Besides, Ravicher said, there's not that much difference between suing to bring attention to an alleged fraud and suing over wrongfully asserted patents (as PubPatent did in its false marking campaign a few years back) or activism to do away with software patents, another of Ravicher's causes.

In Herbalife, he's put his money where his mouth is. As my Reuters colleague Jon Stempel has reported, Ravicher took a big short on Herbalife stock in December, at around the time that Pershing hedge fund manager Ackman went public with his account that the company is "a well-managed pyramid scheme." When Icahn, who is known to be feuding with Ackman, disclosed his supportfor (and huge investment in) Herbalife last month, Ravicher lost $75,000. I asked Ravicher whether his short position in the stock could be seen as a motive for filing suits that might drive down Herbalife's share price. "They can make that argument," he said. On the other hand, Ravicher said, if he hadn't lost money on his Herbalife short, he wouldn't have standing to sue Icahn.

Ravicher also told me that he bought stock in BofA, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo specifically to establish standing in his suit against the banks, which is the first shareholder derivative case he has filed. He's already addressed (albeit cursorily) one potential pitfall of derivative litigation: demand futility. Earlier this month, Ravicher sent letters to the CEO and general counsel of each of the banks, identifying himself as a shareholder, laying out his claim that Herbalife is a pyramid scheme and asking each bank to withdraw the credit it had extended to the company. Only Wells Fargo responded, according to Ravicher's complaint, and it said the bank would not take action against a customer based on a third party's allegations. The banks' failure to act on the evidence he sent about the purported Herbalife fraud, Ravicher contends, means that it would be futile to make additional demands that they drop the credit line. That futility, he said in the derivative complaint, entitles him to sue on behalf of the banks.

If BofA, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo agree to shut down Herbalife's credit facilities, Ravicher said, he'll drop the derivative suit. "I really expect the banks to do the right thing here," he told me. "This is not a business they want to be in."

Otherwise, if Icahn and the banks continue to back Herbalife, he said, he's ready for them to make an issue of his financial motives: "If they do attack me personally - and I expect they will - that just means they don't have a response to my argument."

Representatives of Herbalife and the three banks named in the derivative suit declined my requests for comment. An Icahn representative didn't respond to requests by Reuters for comment.

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