Why would he have to leave the country? Most penny stock scammers never see the inside of a jail cell. They agree to pay back some of the money and go away quietly. Or, maybe the SEC never gets involved so they walk away clean.
This is as close to legalized theft as one can get.
Walk into a bank and steal money, you get charged with a felony.
Call up a few hundred people, convince them to give you money for some wild idea and you get felony fraud charges.
Sell billions upon billions of shares of a worthless penny stock and get carried off, hoisted up by the people you ripped off, called a hero and spoken of like you are the savior. And, likely never have to repay a dime and almost always get charged in civil court, never to carry a criminal conviction if you are caught.
Kind of funny when you really take a step back and look at it isn't it?
You can steal millions from gullible penny stock investors and never face criminal charges yet stealing $1,000 from a bank is a felony.