I had to go back to figure out how this wasn't a host of felonies.
On Wednesday, we reviewed the articles of incorporation, confirmed the ownership of the company with the CFO, talked to the board, put indemnification and release of liability agreements in place, and agreed on a course of action.
They acted with permission of the beneficial owners of the company. The CEO and CTO mentioned at the end were presumably minority shareholders,a nd were leveraging their custody of the security keys to negotiate a better deal in their own interests, and were thus in breach of their fiduciary obligations.
They explain pretty clearly at the front that they verified the ownership of the company and were hired by the group that owned 51%. What they did was the IT equivalent of a repo job. Doing this sort of hacking on your own equipment by yourself or a hired third-party is legal.
"On Wednesday, we reviewed the articles of incorporation, confirmed the ownership of the company with the CFO, talked to the board, put indemnification and release of liability agreements in place, and agreed on a course of action."