Eliot Spitzer was working with the real bad men. He was bankrolled in his campaigns by Larry Kramer and a bunch of his (Larry Kramer's) clients and brokers who wanted to be favored by Larry Kramer. FWIW, Eliot Spitzer and Larry Kramer were best friends in college and Eliot Spitzer is invested from the start in the hedge fund Larry Kramer started.
Larry Kramer was manipulating stock prices by writing columns. He was also using information to manipulate stockbrokers (building a buzz) and using commissions to get information from brokers. There is evidence of Larry Kramer committing Naked Short Sells, conspiracy to commit fraud, fraud, conspiracy to bribe a public oficial, bribery of a public official, and more. Yes, this is the same guy that is on CNBC.
Spitzer notably failed to achieve one conviction against "The criminals" on Wall Street.
The CEO of Overstock.com has these guys cold, but has had trouble getting people interested in the case.