So you can launder money though diamonds and jewels and they can't touch you because it's not money? You still have to launder the coins for cash which I'm sure is what he was doing. There's bound to be laundering going on somewhere along the chain.
Yes. It is safe to assume that the DPR converted at least some of his 180,000+ BTCs to fiat.
Yeah, plus even if he did manage to weasel out of this charge, he's basically admitting guilt to everything else.