Not a lawyer but here goes.
The investigation was very narrowly focused on financial matters. Awan probably brought up the IT stuff and they rebuffed him and told him stay on subject or the deal would fail. He did so,
So, he is protected from any prosecution of matters which he revealed to the investigators. He is not immune for prosecution of anything that does not involve his financial dealings.
They gave him a deal that meant nothing. It was the only deal he could have gotten. He is going to be on the hot seat when the IT portion comes around and is going to jail for a long time.
One question that has occurred to me is if he communicated across state lines over his server network, does that constitute interstate crime? I sort of suspect it does and he is going to feel the burn when it comes down him.
Executive Summary. Awan, you’re screwed.
I hope you are right.
I do know that it was reported that the Feds probed Awan’s hacking for possible espionage (because of him being from Pakistan), then, when they could’t prove that, the went in the banking direction.
Many people suspect (as do I) that hacking charges were simply dropped because too many people were compromised and at risk of being revealed.
My thoughts are rather than let him off completely, they got him to plea for bank fraud.
Thank you for posting your response to my question. I hope he pays for what he did because I firmly believe he compromised people so severely that it has impacted their ability to govern.