June 5, 2021
The fine being assessed to Robinhood for this crime is insultingly low. It's not even a slap on the wrist. I demand my government and SEC take seriously the responsibility that we have entrusted you as citizens. Please reasses your penalty structure so that nefarious actors in the markets don't simply factor in fines as \"the cost of doing business.\" The fine must be more than the profit made by breaking the law or there is no incentive for criminals to stop defrauding American taxpayers. Indeed, with the current fine structure, and glacial enforcement pace, they are REWARDED for their fraudulent activity. As the profits far outweigh the fines. This is a failing of the SEC that I expect to see rectified in short order. If it is not, I will be left with few reasonable assumptions as to why this system of abuse is allowed to continue, and some of the remaining likely possibilities, implicate the SEC as a co-conspirator sharing ill gotten gains. The revolving door between the SEC and C-suite executives for parties that the SEC is supposed to regulate adds to this picture of complicit ignorance.
Fix the system. Fix the penalty structure. Send these criminals to prison for life. They are nothing more than modern bank robbers stealing the savings of hard working middle, and lower class Americans. These crooks contribute to the divide in the American economy and the SECs laissez faire attitude toward enforcement is inexcusable. Your negligence has allowed this. This is your mess to clean up. If you are not up to the task of regulating free and fair markets then the SEC should be replaced with a working system.