I think civil damages are going to be more onerous than any criminal penalty. Plus there will be the public shame. Any publicity bid has backfired in his face knowing that he caused rescuers to go on a dangerous wild goose chase.
I hope you are right. Not sure about the public shame part though. A family that has their young kids perform a vulgar rap video on YouTube where one kid is shown sitting naked on a toilet at one point.....and a family that routinely burps, farts, throws up on tv............well i could be wrong but my guess is they have an extraordinarily high threshold to shame ; )