"This is hopeless." On this, we agree. You appear to be basing your understanding on the reason.com article and have not read the actual underlying proceeding

"This is hopeless." On this, we agree. You appear to be basing your understanding on the reason.com article and have not read the actual underlying proceedings. He was fined because he lied on his renewal application. There are likely very few examples of this exact issue because most professionals don't behave in this fashion. Seeing as how the article leaves out this salient point, it's fairly clear that the article is not an unbiased source. As for the "strawmen" comment: you're getting direct, personal feedback from someone who does this for a living and has been for over 15 years. My opinion is that my association would have done the same thing, if not more, and would have been correct in doing so. The court involved in this case agrees. If you choose to hand wave it away because it's inconsistent with whatever deeper meaning you have read into, you do you.