I don't see anyone arguing that he should get leniency. It's more in the opposite direction: given how common scams are in this space _and_ how basically every time the response is some combination of “yeah, everyone knew that [but didn't say anything]” or “yes, but this new venture is totally different” it seems reasonable to question whether anything in the field is what it's actually being portrayed as. At the very least it seems like a good argument that there needs to be some big improvements in self-regulation and things like real, public audit reports.