> I'd guess a 23-year old in that business has a history of "less-than-white-hat" activities...

Indeed, and given that he's only 23 years old, there's a good chance the statute of limitations has not been reached for those activities.

There's several other comments in this thread now saying things to that effect. I suppose that's not too surprising.

Wouldn't be surprised if this gets a lot of other people in the field thinking.

That's an interesting position to be in. If you're legit now but you have some past event which might be uncovered, do you approach the DOJ (through a lawyer, of course) to turn yourself in and try to cut a deal, maybe probation and free consulting services for TLAs for a few years, or do you just hope it never comes to light?

Then again, any deal probably means informing on friends and acquaintances of that period and scene. You could try to contact some of them and see if you could go forward together, but then you're setting yourself up for a prisoner's dilemma situation.