Genius defense if it holds up.
Yes turns out being a BOFH IRL has fairly serious consequences.
The back story here is that looks like an IT company with no actual IT capabilities.
IOW it's a sales operation for what sound like a bunch of fast talking sales types, with this guy (and his predecessor) doing the real work and who stabbed his mate in the back to avoid dividing up the spoils when the business is sold on, and thought they could buy him off with a bit of a raise.
Whey you behave like that as an employer you'd better be pretty sure the guy whose taking over actually likes and trusts you.
I wonder if anyone would buy this company now that they realize it's basically a shell, with no actually in house IT skills?