He and his friend just seem like total idiots to me. My thoughts: On top of his operation being a big scam, supposedly some amount of the "aid" money sent to Ukraine was invested into FTX, which made huge political contributions to the left. I bet this guy is tied to a lot of really interesting people, but as a patsy who can't really name names. That's why they're hitting him with 20 years; so people think "Oh good - Justice was done." Rather than, "Who was that guy working with?"