It’s unusual for chief executive officers to be held criminally responsible for financial misconduct at their firms.

Equally eye-opening is the significant discrepancy in sentences handed down recently against the leaders at a pair of cryptocurrency exchanges.

Aaron Nicodemus is the Editor-in-Chief of Compliance Week. He previously worked as a reporter for Bloomberg Law and as business editor at the Telegram & Gazette in Worcester, Mass. Email: aaron.nicodemus@complianceweek.com LinkedIn:...