Or both, his post history is full of generic posts. I'm not inclined to anything in terms of having his ban removed or imposing some other penalty as you suggest but I'm not surprised this happened to him.
Unfortunately, there is a "$306.25 active non-collateral loan that should be repaid on or before 2025-05-25." Lifting the ban may help recover that amount. I also don't believe the intent was plagiarism, but rather paid spam.
+ It all depends on how serious the new story is.