"That was February 2016. By July, Riordan says, he’d downloaded emails, financial reports, and other records from the network that he says showed the company’s namesake, Chief Executive Officer Mike Rothenberg, was using investor money to fund other projects he owned"

That's kind of troubling, depending upon the details.

If I hire someone and he starts fishing around on the servers that he has access to, looking to put together a case, that could easily be a violation of trust. I could maybe even see if the SEC had contacted him and asked him for information as an informant in something ongoing. But Riordan initiated this - and it wasn't like the Uber example where Susan Fowler was exposing company culture information that was more public in the first place.

Granted, Rothenberg looks pretty dirty and I have personal experience with a CEO diverting company funds and priorities away from the supposed corporate mission. It's no fun and I have sympathy for stopping him.

If I hire someone to do some server work, I want him to do the job I'm paying for - not spend my money trying to build a case against me.