Lying to Investors vs. Lying to Customers (Score 2, Interesting)

Puffery, exaggeration and just plain lying to the public about your product is usually considered pretty tame stuff, especially if you qualify your fibs with enough weasel words ("we believe", "according to" "you should see" "tests show", etc.). Even if you don't qualify them, but use your tall tales primarily to sell the product, you usually don't incur the govt's wrath (health claims excluded). No one is generally prosecuted for falsely claiming they make the best widget or for failing to meet a delivery date. However, lie or exaggerate to the "market" in order to affect your stock price, (in other words, investors, analysts and the SEC) and all hell breaks loose. Looks to me like this is probably what the fuss is about. It's not necessarily right (why do investors get more protection than customers?) but I don't think it's anything new, Times article notwithstanding.