Wouldn't it be super if the FSA, having identified and successfully prosecuted the crooks that spread the HBOS rumours,applied and got a confiscation of their "proceeds of crime". Mega sums have been suggested, quite enough to pay for the FSA for while and deter future such criminality.
Not to mention compensation for all the others who lost out by selling at a depressed price.
The chances of
a. Finding the person allegedly responsible b. Proving that they did something wrong
are so minimal that they can be ignored.
Based on publicly available information about HBOS and the banking market in general at that time, it wouldn't be too difficult to show that you genuinely believed that the substance of the rumours was true. That, of course, is why people believed them.
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