It would be surprising to me if a middle manager approved investing in a former highly visible executive's company without talking to folks involved with the se

It would be surprising to me if a middle manager approved investing in a former highly visible executive's company without talking to folks involved with the separation agreement, precisely because there might be unknown legal details. The appropriate part of Google could have said "We cannot invest in this company because we have confidentially found reason to suspect future reputational risk, and you can't even tell him that's why you're not investing" or something.