If he's being forced by other parties to shut down the service because it's illegal, he's still the one who decided to open the service and he's still ultimately responsible for that. He caused financial loss to his investors by not doing his due diligence beforehand to make sure he would be able to keep his agreement.
Investors should have done their due diligence as well, but the buck doesn't stop there, and that doesn't let Nefario off the hook.
The owners are partners with him and knew damn well it was illegal, they even apparently were trying to sell out because Nefario wanted to come clean to the regulators.
It sounds like you are judging one partner in the scam a scammer based on what you have been told of the internal politics of their illegal operation while ignoring that the partners in this illegal business are not the victims here. You aren't moderators of their privately run criminal enterprise, you are moderators of this forum.
The scam is GLBSE as an organization.