[shadowgovt]

> If I get pulled over in a Bentley with an expired sticker, I pay the same price as someone in a Kia.

That meets an intuitive definition of fairness, but the realpolitik story there is you don't have a lot of power to make trouble for the municipality by tying them up in court for a half-decade arguing how your Bentley was actually operated legally because the definitions of "sticker" and "driving" and "expired" are very flexible (on account of them being not very flexible).

The probability a case heads towards settlement hinges on the ambiguity of the charges and the plaintiff's ability to prove said charges. Securities is way murkier than traffic operation.

[tptacek]

Yeah, that didn't happen. The SEC brought this enforcement action in 2019.

[mehlmao]

Yeah, the SEC arranged a settlement so they wouldn't spend a decade in court.