I don't agree. In one case a person is raising financial capital, in others they're raising social or political capital. All such frauds upon the public are bad

I don't agree. In one case a person is raising financial capital, in others they're raising social or political capital. All such frauds upon the public are bad and I think there's something wrong with society only treating it as a crime when a currency symbol is involved. It's not just the investors (financial or professional or...) who lose out; people who were correctly skeptical in advance of the public revelation are often attacked or sidelined for expressing doubt about a fabricator's grandiose claims.