The corporations that funded this fraud got what they wanted (at that point in time, when the FCC sided with them in policy) and were not punished with even so much as a fine.

It's a very interesting example, to me: the telecom companies set up an arms-length arrangement with the criming entities, the "social media consultants", such that if the fraud were caught (and it was), the people who benefited from the crime, and intended for the crime to happen, could plausibly plead ignorance. US law apparently has no good solution to this type of "wink-and-nod" white-collar crime.