TFA says that Ernst and Young was the company to crack the laptop. Ernst and Young would not burn a zero-day exploit on an auditing job.
E&Y’s own reports say that it was the Applicant’s own “expert” that tried to break in.
The applicant is the founder’s widow.
The expert doesn’t seem to have much of a specialization for breaking into computers. Who knows what kind of mess he caused.
S. 12
https://documentcentre.eycan.com/eycm_library/Quadriga%20Fin...
Coming up with 0-days is moderately hard with your own cracking team. Buying them is an easy thing to do.
Ultimately, that's what 0-days are for in the wider market. You find one and sell it.
A package of tools that comes on a hardened usb key, just plug it in in the field and it runs through the 0days that it knows about.