Feb. 7, 2022
The fact that the SEC needs public comment on whether or not fraud should be made illegal says a lot about the state of the market today. I am a retail investor and I agree with this proposed rule. It's hard to have faith in the market when I know I am being defrauded by institutional players. It's not enough to simply legislate, we need punishments to match crimes. If the penalty for commiting fraud is a fine that's only a small fraction the size of the profits from commiting the fraud, then that's not a punishment, it's a "cost of doing business". Honestly, it embarrasses me as an American that this is currently the state of affairs. I think I probably speak for a lot of people when I say that we want to see real reform in our markets and a return of confidence from investors, we need regulation, transparency, and meaningful enforcement/consequences for fraud and other financial crime. Best regards.