[gamblor956]

People did lose money: most of the investors were out of money for years after the fraud, suffering actual economic harm, and even then were only partially made whole by Skreli giving out shares of his other company, which materially diluted that company's other shareholders. It was a sheer matter of luck that the other company's stock increased in value enough that some of the victims made profits, years after the original fraud.

From a legal perspective, it's irrelevant that on a long-enough time frame the victims ultimately ended up better off. That would be like saying that an attempted murder is a victimless crime if the hospital discovers that the victim has a fatal but removable brain cancer while treating their wounds from the assault.