What I got from this article is that the guy was basically trying to extort money from companies that hadn't complied in the past. This particular company fixe

What I got from this article is that the guy was basically trying to extort money from companies that hadn't complied in the past. This particular company fixed their compliance issues, and Patrick McHardy still went after them once they had. He did so while hiding it from other kernel developers, and kept all of the money for himself.