He's still on the hook in a handful to a dozen-odd states for running wire-transfer and payment processing operations without the proper licensing/approvals. And God only knows what kind of trouble he may still be in with the fed.gov over this all.
So in reality, this is just one local fraud case filed against him. The Gpal saga is far from over.
And of course, this is just the criminal side of the issue. It in no way exonerates him in terms of civil action over gross negligence.
And it's hard not to agree with the DA in that the whole mess is just due to incompetence, not malfeasance. Despite all the shady stuff, and how he presented the appearance of this well-heeled venture capitalist, Ben stood to make much more money if Gpal took off, rather than just "taking the money and running", which he didn't even do, another bank/credit-card seized Gpal's assets from some other debts owed prior, because Ben didn't firewall Gpal properly in terms of it's incorporation or financials.
He's still scum, just not the deliberate thieving kind. More of the flim-flam try to juggle everyone else's money until the profits roll in kind of scum.
