This isn't true. He said "And other than when I was 12 years old I have never cheated in a tournament with prize money." That implies, to me, that when he was 12 he did in fact cheat for prize money.

And then he admitted that he cheated as a 16 year old in "random games" to boost his online rating. I can't find any instance of him providing a number of how many games he admits to cheating in, but the chess.com report alleged over 100, including when he was 17.