Surely the SEC would be able to follow a money trail if Laidlaw paid for the pump?
No need for LLEG to pay for the pump in order to attract SEC attention. I haven't seen anything that would suggest LLEG was involved with Stocktweeters and the like. The pump occurred, and that is what IMO attracted the SEC's attention.
Then it became a matter of investigating how the company operates once on the SEC's radar. Alternatively maybe LLEG was on the radar all along, where the pump set things in motion. I agree it would be interesting to know the SEC's timeline.