This took 5 years to prosecute and the guy has at least one shell company mentioned in the panama papers.

Seems likely there's a little more to the story. (or they didn't find anything for 5 years until the guy bragged to someone)

However by far the strangest thing here is how very specific the charges are, one hack 5 years ago and no co-conspirators? How on earth didn't they find anything else to charge him with? [1]

[1] Of course this all could be explained away by them having a weak case, which they probably would have if they failed to seize his personal equipment