> Fines mean nothing.

Fines can mean something, if scaled correctly:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day-fine

A shorter jail sentence? Somehow I feel like there is perhaps a less harsh punishment than life in prison but perhaps worse than a fine.

These people are leveraging everything in their power to fuck over millions to save themselves money. We put them away for 5 years and they still come out billionaires in the end, why wouldn't they do it?

These people are already billionaires or large multi millionaires.

If I had a billion dollars and could get 2 billion dollars but I'd go to jail for 5 years, I would absolutely NOT do that thing.

A jail sentence for such a well positioned white collar criminal is probably comparable to a retreat lodge. Such an institution certainly doesn't have prison bars and a fenced perimeter because it is low security and has a special privilege.

So what - somehow somewhere someone will have the power to jail these white collar criminals for their entire life, but they don't have the power to make a 5 year jail sentence more uncomfortable?

Your objection doesn't even make sense.