even if it were true, there's clear favoritism going on: several banks have been caught violating money-laundering legislation over the years, and many more have likely got away with it.
And yet those banks are considered "institutional", and are given an incredibly light touch punishment. Fines they can easily afford, and no individuals are held responsible, regardless of how brazen the violations were.
It's the equivalent of not bringing a letter from your parents to miss gym class, but instead of afternoon detention, detention for the entire rest of your life. With murderers. As I was saying, who do these people think they are to behave like this?
They're being given light punishment precisely because they're big enough to be institutional and carry enough clout to be protected from being taken down. It will be an interesting day if Coinbase or a similar major cryptocurrency company ever grows to comparable size and influence of legacy financial institutions, and how things are going to be handled when they are caught committing similar misdeeds.