Sounds like this guy was an effective contract engineering vendor, just without the contracts. Assuming these 13 remote employees were doing a satisfactory job

Sounds like this guy was an effective contract engineering vendor, just without the contracts. Assuming these 13 remote employees were doing a satisfactory job for his employers, I wonder if the employers would have been OK with the arrangement if he were open and transparent about the outsourcing. Were they all national security sensitive jobs?