> Second, I suspect that it is both events which led to his firing.

Plus possible other events known to the board but not us. We’ll know eventually.

Not necessarily.

Once I worked at a company where the sales VP got caught embezzling by setting up (large amounts of) fake affiliates.

It boosted the overall revenue numbers, and I think they were impressed at how long he had gotten away with it, so they let him be ‘stolen’ by a competitor (who didn’t know the circumstances) while they swept it under the rug.

Easy 8 figures of revenue impact per year.

Pretty ingeniously evil, IMO.