Extremely unlikely. You're treating this like some kind of James Bond movie - which is playing perfectly into the thesis the media has laid out for you.
Yep the moral hazard and conflict of interests are completely obvious and unsound. It's mind-blowing (well, not really), that the CFTC isn't pursuing *that* as a real issue. Exchanges should be nearly 100% impartial with no vested financial interests in a way that could provide advantage to a sub-set of exchange users (and as we know, there's a separate lawsuit on that already).
Q http://www.nasdaq.com/article/flash-crash-investigators-likely-missed-clues-20150426-00037 Mr. Sarao appears to have been on the CME's radar since at least 2008, when two employees from the exchange visited him at his trading station in the offices of Futex Global in London, according to former colleagues. "They came to watch him trade," said Leif Cid, a former trader who was mentored by Mr. Sarao, in an interview. " They wanted to know how he did what he did." Such visits were common for traders who were responsible for a large amount of volume on the exchange, according to a person familiar with the CME. The CME contacted Mr. Sarao's broker on "several occasions in 2009 and 2010" about "suspicious activity," according to the criminal complaint filed against Mr. Sarao. The CME declined to comment on its interaction with Mr. Sarao. UQ
I would never accept anyone watching how I trade. They could steal information from they "system" you developped to trade. And why do they need that? They can see when he traded, what he placed or cancelled and what was executed without leaving their chair in the US. No need to go and watch him in real trading. At least not for the reasons they pretended.
I hope for the SEC he is not Jesus, because he will never allow them to go to heaven. He will send them to hell. So in the end real justice always wins.
Sarao's biggest edge is his ability to trade his method with large size without being affected emotionally. You cannot steal or copy that from him by just watching him trade. But his method, your method, or my method is nothing super special or secret that nobody else has no idea about already.