It’s the intention. Intention is really important in the US legal system; killing someone on purpose is murder but by accident is manslaughter, even if the resu

It’s the intention. Intention is really important in the US legal system; killing someone on purpose is murder but by accident is manslaughter, even if the result is the same. Same goes for finance; failing to do something you intended to do is one thing, but lying to investors and the public that you’re doing it even though you secretly are not is another. And so we punish the second because there was an intent to defraud investors, even if the investors were foolish too.