[threedots]

It's trivial for the SEC

I don't know if you're implying the SEC is in cahoots with the hedge funds, and not just any hedge fund but one associated with SAC/Cohen whom the SEC went to war with. I'm sympathetic to your general point but as someone who has spent his whole career in the financial markets that seems vanishingly unlikely to be the case here.

[lovich]

He got what, banned from supervising a hedge fund for 2 years for insider trading? If the punishment he received from the SEC constitutes "war" in the financial markets then I don't think you understand the viewpoint that sees the the SEC as handing out trivial punishments.

[threedots]

There is a big difference between handing out light punishments and actively colluding. In the case of Cohen, his light punishment is because they were never able to find the smoking-gun evidence they needed to put him away properly on criminal charges despite a massive effort to do so so they settled for what they could get. It's not enough to be guilty (hi OJ), and Cohen was guilty as sin I don't doubt it.

[lovich]

If the punishments are smaller than the rewards from breaking the rules, then they have no effect on stopping the behavior. They are functionally a small cost of doing business.