Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged a mid-level Citigroup executive – Brian Stoker – with misleading investors in a $1 billion mortgage bond deal. At the end the trial, Stoker’s attorney, John Keker, told the jury that the SEC’s case was mostly about others at Citigroup – not about his client.

He likened the case to Where’s Waldo, the children’s book by British illustrator Mark Handford. The Where’s Waldo books are illustrated with crowds of colorfully dressed people – and you have to pick Waldo out of the crowd.

Well, the jury agreed with Keker and found that Stoker was not negligent in the case. But they didn’t want to send the wrong message to the SEC. So, they attached to the jury verdict a note.

It read: “This verdict should not deter the SEC from continuing to investigate the financial industry, review current regulations and modify existing regulations as necessary.” The statement was read aloud by federal judge Jed S. Rakoff.

Twenty-three year old juror Travis Dawson told the New York Times – “I’m not saying that Stoker was 100 percent innocent, but given the crazy environment back then it was hard to pin the blame on one person. Stoker structured a deal that his bosses told him to structure, so why didn’t they go after the higher-ups rather than a fall guy?”

Dennis Kelleher, president of Better Markets, a public interest group based inWashington, D.C., agreed with the jury.

“The message from this jury’s verdict is clear – until the SEC starts bringing cases against the real corporate wrongdoers and their executives, juries aren’t going to allow the SEC to scapegoat junior employees,” Kelleher said.

“The SEC charged a single mid-level employee for all of Citigroup’s derivatives misconduct leading up to the financial crisis. It did not charge any of the dozens if not hundreds of other involved employees, officers and executives. The SEC also let the corporation, Citigroup, off by settling with it for a puny penalty that was so small as to be irrelevant to Citigroup.”

At the time Stoker was charged, Citigroup was ordered to pay a $285 million penalty – without admitting or denying wrongdoing – an action that led Judge Rakoff to scratch the settlement.

“The jury obviously saw the unfairness in this highly selective enforcement of the law. This shows that the SEC’s practice of letting corporations and executives off without any meaningful penalties is fundamentally flawed. Mr. Stoker was one of dozens of Citigroup employees packaging and selling the $1 billion derivative, which Citigroup itself shorted and bet against,” Kelleher said. “The SEC’s practice of chasing minnows while letting the whales go must change if Wall Street’s pattern of breaking the law is to be stopped.”

Kelleher said that Better Markets objected to the paltry sweetheart settlement between the SEC and Citigroup in federal court in Manhattan last fall and will be filing its objections in the pending appeal of that settlement shortly.