I can't speak for every institution (and every department within), but at least in mine (in the US), there were pretty specific rules and requirements around aw

I can't speak for every institution (and every department within), but at least in mine (in the US), there were pretty specific rules and requirements around awarding a PhD, involving coursework, qualifiers, proposals, the thesis and its defense. Seems unlikely that this could be easily circumvented for this type of situation.