I recall Carreyrou (the journalist who wrote this article and exposed them originally) saying a few weeks ago that he thought it was a bad idea for them to keep operating the company, that it was probably antagonizing the DOJ. This is just a hunch, but it may be that they (the DOJ) were convinced that if not indicted, they would try to do it all again (find a new bunch of investors to fleece). If so, I think they might have been correct.