@ned could have done this all by himself at any time during the last 4 years. @ned didn't do this. What he did do was lull the substantial stakeholders into a false sense of empowerment by not doing it, or otherwise using his stake, except as he stated for supporting development and dapps.
The witnesses knew @justinsunsteemit was not @ned, and they did not trust @justinsunsteemit, which is why they did to him what they never did to @ned, and froze his stake.
There were probably legal considerations that @ned didn't do it for four years.
STINC was trying to get around security regulations with the ninja mine since it's a US company. He decided to sell out to relieve himself of legal troubles.