"Your honor, my client does not possess the funds to continue this trial, so we have crafted an offer to the plaintiffs: in lieu of compensating them for the hundreds of watches that have gone missing from their inventory, we admit no wrongdoing and they will be offered stock in his watch making company should he ever start one"
Maybe there's a word we could apply to situations where a group of people make plans to carry out an activity that is not legal for personal gain