The severity of the crime doesn't change based on a your income. The idea that someone who is a doctor should be fined a $500 for a $50 offense, is not logical, or moral I would say.
Fines are meant to be a deterrent. A $400 ticket means nothing to a rich person, but it could turn a poor person's life upside down for a while. Why should rich people not have to fear fines for misbehavior?
So to be perfectly honest, I think most (possibly not all) but most are not intentional efforts to defraud the SEC and violate laws.
With all the money and lawyers banks have I find that hard to believe.
Again, you can't just have arbitrary punishment for crime, based on how much money the target has.
Fines needs to actually be deterrents to people that break laws.
That's not how our system works.
It could, at least when it comes to the banks, and I think that'd be just fine. I see what you're saying; I just disagree with a lot of it.
Enron had all the money and lawyers too. Didn't help them.
And no, if our system of justice is now an arbitrary system based not on what you did wrong, but rather who you are... then it is no longer a system of justice.