Little crooks go to jail. Big crooks go to congress.

Separately, the CFTC fined Moore Capital Management — one of the largest and most consistently profitable hedge funds — for trying to manipulate the settlement prices of platinum and palladium futures contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The CFTC said Moore’s fund portfolio manager tried to manipulate platinum and palladium futures from at least November 2007 through May 2008 by entering trades in the last 10 seconds of trading in a manner designed to exert upward pressure on the settlement prices.

The practice is known as “banging the close.”

In addition to the fine, Moore Capital has restrictions on its trading activities for three years, including a two-year restriction on its trades within 15 minutes of and during the close in the platinum and palladium futures and options markets, the CFTC said.

Moore Capital said the individual involved in the settlement case left the company in the fall of 2008.