Bitfinex will break the law again with a shit idea as usual. Anyway, they issued illegal securities(tokens) when they are not even license for a money transmitter business.....so, everything that Bitfinex is doing, it's outlaw and they will lose any lawsuit that it may come(I am sure it will come shortly).
Unfortunately I'm pretty sure, that even winning in court (after years and substantial costs) will not help to properly reimburse the victims. Illegality per se means nothing here. I think there is a number of exchanges that is breaking some laws (with or without knowledge) yet they still are acting in an ethical way towards its users. Even a perfectly legal exchange might find a catastrophic ending with zero compensation for its users. From what I read, Bitfinex is not US-based, so I would be a bit more careful to call its operation illegal without knowledge of the home countries legal system.
As sad as it is, I think Bitfinex users should be grateful to receive at least a significant part of their funds back, which is highly unusual in Bitcoins hacking/scam history.
It will be very interesting to see the results of a thorough investigation of the Bitfinex incident. However we have to wait for this a little more...
ya.ya.yo!