Everyone lies. Context and intent is what matters.
How about the ”context” that those investors were investing in his company which had hundreds or thousands of employees who also had stakes in its financial health? And he stole the company’s money from those stakeholders and handed it over to himself personally?
How many degrees in Advanced Moral Gymnastics do you need to figure that one out?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_S%C3%B8ren_Kierk... ("Wikipedia: Philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard: Subjectivity")
Note also that "asshole" has different connotations to different people. And yet... still a very useful descriptor to help isolate bad actors from the rest of society.