[olliej]

You can throw TFA around all you like but

> Also, according to US federal sentencing guidelines, insider trading actually gets you harsher punishment compared to theft[2], 2 more points to be exact. For the duo mentioned in TFA, it's a difference between 10–16 months (for theft) and 15–21 months (for insider trading).

Is demonstrably false because as TFA says, the penalty for insider trading is a fine, no jail time, and no need to admit guilt.

> I suspect the reason for the lack of fines is that they didn't actually do anything illegal, or that they were difficult to prosecute, not because it's legal to defraud people.

Yet we know from multiple trials, and multiple lawsuits, that what they were doing is in fact illegal, because if what they were doing _was_ legal then instead of saying "most had no jail time" I would be saying "none had any jail time", instead of "only paying back a quarter" they would not have had to pay back any.