There was a lot of speculation that Richard Nader was involved in the kidnapping/ransom. Was he a true victim or did he help set it up from the top? This was left unclear.
shareNo. He paid whatever money he had and you really can not blaming him for lying about his friends son being killed , trying to garner money for his sons life to be spared.
shareHe had a reputation for being shady operator and did deceive the dead kid's dad to get the ransom money. But he wasn't involved, though the kidnappers also using his house didn't help either.
shareI think the real kidnapper probably realised that there might be suspicion that it was an "inside job" (exactly like the third dad said soon after he was told about the abductions).
So the real kidnapper was happy to lead some fake clues as to who the insider might be.
Nope, he was a red herring for the viewer.
The reason why the guy used his house, his nickname and all that was simply because he knew these people and used to go there with his father.
The viewer was let to start suspecting this together with other fathers, but even before the reveal it didn't make sense because he would then have no need to admit being broke - he could just pretend he transferred his money as well.