Yah know, every firm is audited, and I don't mean just financial audits but FINRA audits. And they are spot audits, but every year, I would not want to get caught tweaking software or servers. Smaller firms might not be able to afford the fine and go out of biz.
I only knew one person when it was Knight-Trimark, they were well funded and I think he was in the Westchester County, New York office. And I know he shorted into my order flow. And once I squeezed him on a stock and pissed off. But then again, I knew my orderflow, he did not. I knew how to trade the orders and trade around him. His name was Andrew.