Throwaway for obvious reasons. I was at a startup in the valley where they got one of the cofounders to work for sweat equity for over a year then got him deported to his home country to remove him from the picture (was reliant on employer sponsored visa. They 'accidentaly on purpose' didn't turn up to his immigration meeting). He managed to dodge this by enrolling on some bullshit PhD to get back into the country but then they screwed him with trumped up claims of embezzling company funds. All I would say is, don't jump to any conclusions with your interpretation of this case.