Cascadia Investments (CDIV)

[Ron456785]

Although some short squeezes may occur naturally in the market, a scheme to manipulate the price or availability of stock in order to cause a short squeeze is illegal.

A scheme to take people's money for shares that do not exist and have no possibility of being settled is also illegal, is it not? Or does this just not matter because the only ones hurt by such fraud are "little people," i.e., anyone who isn't a market maker, dtcc, broker/dealer, or part of a hedge fund?