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Both b and d are most definitely not illegal -- deceptive yes, but not illegal.

If I sell you a crappy asset (imagine a company almost going bankrupt) for $10m and you don't do proper due diligence on said asset, then you have no right of complaining afterwards. No one is going to do your homework.

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If I am your client, you have fiduciary responsibility to warn me - I am paying you commission to do due diligence.

If you know it is a crappy product, and don;t warn me, it is at the very least a SEC violation, punishable. Could also be viewed as fraud, and pursued as a crime.

Actually, in the USA, very few financial advisors have a fiduciary duty to their clients.

All bigger institutions certainly do. I have worked for quite a few.

And never mind those situations where GS etc were playing both sides, advising one side to buy, others to sell.

They knew through sheer logic that one of these positions was by deduction not tenable.

But they went for it anyway, collecting commissions on both sides.

Supposedly, that's why they paid "largest penalty ever assessed against a financial services firm in the history of the S.E.C." ($550 million). Unfortunately, I find it hard to believe that's anywhere near enough to dissuade them from doing the same next time.

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