Does someone have more information in whether the 'spoofing' used is illegal?

From Nanex (http://www.nanex.net/) I occasionally read of a practice called 'quote stuffing' which involves mass cancellation of orders.

It seems so ridiculous that no one on Wall Street in prosecuted and yet this guy from the UK somehow gets charged with what seems to be the common practice of HFT firms. Does anyone have more information on this?

It just seems so out of place that the damage caused can be so single handedly. If someone had nefarious intentions in a foreign government attacking financial infrastructure is probably something like our generations nukes - without the blood. I'm still dumbfounded by the scale of damage by something economic theory/markets say shouldn't happen.

Am I an area 51 guy or is something seriously wrong?

Flash Crash discussion begins on page 23.

"SARAO's activity created persistent downward pressure on the price of E-Minis. Indeed, during the dynamic layering cycle that ran from 11:17 a.m. to 1:40 p.m., SARAO's offers comprised 20 to 29% of the CME's entire E-Mini sell-side order book, significantly contributing to the order book imbalance. During that period of time alone, the E-Mini price fell by 361 basis points. In total, SARAO obtained approximately $879,018 in net profits from trading E-Minis that day."