He was very likely to get caught no matter how he put it on, as evidenced by the Swiss acct etc... If you're going to totally break the law in such an obvious way, go big or go home.
The position becomes synthetic long shares if you sell the puts. Slightly less req than buying the stock outright. Best to stick to dime calls. It's academic as they've got him.
Even if they do, the dreams about banking "TOO MUCH MONEY" leading to a man-hunt and painting guilty before proven innocent is not the right type 2 error.