What you described is not illegal. Capitalism is intended to be brutal like that. Companies are not owned by the founders, they are fundamentally owned by the s

What you described is not illegal. Capitalism is intended to be brutal like that. Companies are not owned by the founders, they are fundamentally owned by the shareholders, whether it seems fair or not. What the article describes is a simple case of large fraud: deceiving someone for a personal gain. That is of course if the article is truthful.