That 7 million dollar fine is absolutely nothing to those firms. It's disgusting that the SEC doesn't have the will to actually impose fines which will deter future wrong doing. It is equivalent to us average investors being fined pennies for committing crimes which made us thousand of dollars in the meantime. What motivation is there to stop when that is the case?
I can't remember the exact case in the last few years, but one of the big firms was fined the largest amount ever done by the feds (SEC). I think it was in the hundreds of millions. Certainly a large amount of money and they were all patting themselves on the back for it. However, what was overlooked is the fact the the firm was estimated to have made BILLIONS off of the activities. So how the f$#k does that record fine even matter at that point???!!!
It will only be when the SEC starts fining large percentages of the estimated money made during the illegal activities that these firms will start making real changes.