I know of cases from the Danish market where the financial service authorities went for people who had tried driving the price up in a pump and dump scheme for a small penny stock. Using internet forums and a couple of trading accounts.
They made a few thousand dollars and got months in jail for it.
The problem with wsb is that it has gotten so big and there are too many involved at this point.
It's not really that the government can't go after WSB. Sure they're not going to prosecute 2 million degenerates, but it's not like they can't round up 50 of the big names to make a statement.
It's that there's really no appetite in the federal government for going after retail traders. Retail trading as an industry took a very long time to build and ham-fisted enforcement could tank it harder than a few lawsuits ever could.
Make no mistake, this was going to happen eventually. There's infinite ability to gather information, infinite ability to share it. Retail collusion was inevitable. The people who built the industry knew it was going to happen. They prepared for it. Everyone, including the SEC, knew it was only a matter of time before something like this happens.
Denmark did that because there's much greater financial regulatory capture than there is here.
They made a few thousand dollars and got months in jail for it.
The problem with wsb is that it has gotten so big and there are too many involved at this point.