Somehow he got involved enough to be there and he and his solicitor have determined he is tangled up enough in the web that it will take a long and complex detangling process to get him out.
If LE is in no way interested in looking beyond DM now that they feel their evidence is sufficient, he and his family will have probably hired their own detectives if he is going to try to prove his innocence. That could explain selling some assets if MB feels confident enough to foot the bill for it.
I dont know his intent was to be criminally involved in anything but perhaps he was asked to participate under the guise of it not being a crime, i.e. a test drive. It may have been easy to talk him into anything, I'm afraid.
One thing I found interesting on friends' FB accounts over the last couple years at least was a lot of showboating of the hangar and its cool contents, talk of flying, one throwing himself a birthday bash at the old hangar, all without credit or mention of DM. Kind of acting like it's theirs. He wasnt respected IMO. A dupe through and through, for years. I dont think he controlled anyone, but was led to believe he was in control so they can continue to use him.
Funny how that letter reinforces each of our existing opinions. If it is him that wrote it, it completely solidifies my opinions in this post. Dupe of the Century.
This does not signify he could not be intelligent or successful. Some people cannot see the forest for the trees. They miss the big picture. They lack certain type of skills that are not easily attained in the same way one learns to fly a plane for instance. Social instinct could be weak. Anyway I shall leave it at that and wont speculate into that aspect any further right now because I've never met him, just forming opinions based on what I see just like everybody else here.
Lets hope the pretrial hearing comes quick.