Yes, you definitely couldn't tell the immigration agent that you have an H1B and they'll let you through without checking. However, if the founders are willing

Yes, you definitely couldn't tell the immigration agent that you have an H1B and they'll let you through without checking. However, if the founders are willing to forge money transfer receipts, and given all the other hijinks in the post, I wouldn't put it beyond them to bring over engineers on a tourist visa, instruct them to not tell immigration they're coming to work for some BS reason, and then mislead them by telling them that their H1B is being processed when in fact it isn't. Or something along those lines. I really feel bad for them, along with the author of the article.