Gay will be fine. He has nothing to worry about.
It's Joey who needs to be concerned. Here's the thing, and this is straight from my contact at the SEC...
Investigations look for the big picture. The individual actions themselves may be legal -- for example, Parsi isn't obligated to step down from the CEO role -- but the sum of the parts tells a story.
In this case, that "story" is that Parsi intentionally misled shareholders and investors. If his statements were made knowing that they were false (i.e. Ramada, the renovations in Tanforan, etc), or were used to prop up the price artificially, i.e. bitcoin, Gay's new role, that is where problems occur.
Everyone is allowed one of two mulligans. Things do not go exactly as planned. With Parsi though, he repeatedly lies through his teeth. And that is going to get him in some serious trouble if the SEC decides to pursue this further.
