Lacking the possible plausibility that there is some truthful merit to what I just posted in reply to Malc for the sake of further exploration of the possibilities, I would fully succumb to your first paragraph. However, seeing the roles described in the "confession" played out in real message board posting has brought merit to this confession in my eyes.
In regards to the second, that shorting could pay for the bashing, I think this could be true to some degree. But as I've looked at the scenario as played out stock specific, I would also agree they're not really making a whole lot there. The only real benefit I can conceive, is that of what the investing hedge fund could make on the long side of things.
But this really leads into my second scenario, what if what I've witnessed is the efforts of one highly intelligent individual, perhaps with one accomplice, that is utilizing the script here to manipulate the stock by utilizing multiple aliases, sometimes pumping, sometimes bashing by character, to manipulate a stock to create volatility he/they can profit from?
