That's ridiculous, SI's are just people with certain income or...

That's ridiculous, SI's are just people with certain income or asset thresholds and sometimes you can even get around that. They're not mega rich or institutions. It can be just Joe the Plumber who has 20 guys working for him being hit up by a broker. Yes to a certain extent they are more financially sophisticated as there was obviously a tendency to accumulate wealth to get to their income and asset level but they're also easily exploitable. Look at the Wolf of Wallstreet, his whole operation was essentially through the loophole that SI's should know better so there are less protections for them than retail investors (from memory that was the base of it obviously it was more involved than that, I only read the book a few years ago haven't seen the movie). They're not all Oracles of Omaha, it's just "you must be this high to get on the rollercoaster" where the height points to your bank account not the top of your head. Some are financial geniuses some aren't, some invest in microcap oilers at 1c, some don't. There doesn't need to be any conspiracy here. I really don't get it.. I mean sure the premium is a little unusual, but hasn't OBL tapped SI's like 20 times already? It was a regular thing before Lind.