It's an odd situation, for sure. After all, these share orders were being entered by humans and could have been sitting in the market order books for several seconds. In that time, anyone could have taken their orders. So they really were genuine offers to sell and buy shares.
Compare that to high frequency traders where it is alleged that 'flash' market orders are submitted and cancelled so fast that no-one could actually take them. How can that be considered OK and yet these human traders are labelled fraudulent?
Compare that to high frequency traders where it is alleged that 'flash' market orders are submitted and cancelled so fast that no-one could actually take them. How can that be considered OK and yet these human traders are labelled fraudulent?