I think its lazy to blame politicians for this. Its complex, highly complex, financial horse trading. Its a loophole exploited. Thats probably far more sophisticated than any politician can reasonably be expected to understand deeply, let alone see the bigger destructive picture. (not to mention lobbyists badgering and actively asking for legislation for "loopholes" like this)

A Financial regulator/watchdog is to blame. And of course, Quelle Suprise, lots of countries let the finance sector regulate themselves.

Which is silly, because there are no ethics involved with some of these people. Just profits, at any cost.

Politicians should be experts in many things. Their job is (in the ideal theoretical sense of our political systems) hard and very responsible. What they hell are they doing with their time? Sit in endless pointless meetings? Secret meetings with large business? Faking smiles 13 times a day? WHAT are they doing exactly?

And then -- "we're too busy to know this stuff". In an ideal world such a politician would fly far away from office immediately, and all the people who benefitted from that would have to return the gained money from the loopholes, or live in cozy conditions in the jail. One can dream, right?

So, what are the politicians supposed to know? How to bullshit the general populace on TV?

The article talks about two different schemes: one is 100% illegal, the other one is abuse of a loophole. So there was clearly theft in the first case.

For the second case, I'd call that theft, too. But theft that involves corrupt lawmakers. When communists confiscate people property, it is theft, no matter what the communists put in their law.