Not to be dismissive of other, illegal, acts, if. Like ‘naked’ shorts. If. Which would explain the illegal spoofing. Imo. Right. Discovery… investigative journalism… .fed investigators… This manipulation of the markets has to end. Innovation is gleefully destroyed. Lives lost resultant. A big story here.
The overt act need not be the substantive crime which is the object of the conspiracy, an element of that offense, or even a crime in its own right….
The law really does makes sense. So for example, some people plan a bank robbery, thus the guy who got the floor plans of the bank, and the guy who provided some money to purchase the guns, weeks before the robbery ever took place, whether they were involved in the planning or not, and were in Europe on vacation when the robbery actually took place, are equally guilty under this law.