In my experience, they leave the criminal stuff to the DOJ and deal primarily with regulatory issues. They usually end up with a settlement like. "Your fine is $10M but if you agree to never do it again, lets just shake hands and call it good."
The only losers are the shareholders. I can tell you from personal conversations, the SEC has no respect for investors in pinky scams. Their attitude is almost like "you deserve it". At least it makes their (lack of) job easier.
In fairness to the SEC, they have very limited power over Pinkies because 99% of their authority is through the 33 and 34 act. TDEY is neither.
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