[quickthrower2]

Except people not lying and deceiving about their businesses to investors, or in other words trust, is the cornerstone of civilisation.

A corollary is romance scammers who get $100k has no impact, as long as the victim has more money saved up.

[s1artibartfast]

I basically agree. The point of punishment is to maintain Trust and standards in business dealings. This is very important.

That said, is a different argument and the idea that this specific Financial crime hurt lots of people throughout society. Nobody outside the investors was or will be harmed as long as trust and standards are maintained.

By comparison, I think the social harm would have been far greater if she defrauded $1 from every working american instead, instead 140M from 14 investors