For HipHop to be charged with a criminal offence, it would need to be proven that he/she knew the Switch was stolen when he/she purchased the unit. That is a gray area and it looks like Nintendo won't be pressing charges against HipHop, but the argument could be made that buying something two weeks before actual release from a non-retail source should be a big enough red flag to at least question the merits of how the item was obtained.
If he didn't know, then why would he lie?