I don't know. Occam's Razor says he's fucking stupid.
Lots of people are stupid. I don't do much criminal work but I do lots of administrative work dealing with professional and trade licenses; you'd be shocked at how dumb some people are.
Example: I have one client who is a NYC licensed master plumber, which is a printing press for money; we are all in the wrong business. He has no employees. Last year he filed EIGHT HUNDRED permits with the buildings department. (In case you don't see the game here, he's covering for unlicensed guys; some fuckstick just off the boat from China or wherever does the work for a fraction of what a licensee would charge; the licensee takes some money under the table, puts in the application under his license, and swears that he did the work). It is physically impossible for one guy without employees to do eight hundred plumbing jobs throughout the five boroughs in one year. His license is toast, and he's probably going to prison (real time, not slap on the wrist stuff) for filing false instruments with the city. He's asking if he can get off with a year's probation, because "what could they know? they don't know nothing."
It's not complicated: PEOPLE ARE STUPID.