u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
So the letters don't say they "worked" there. They are carefully written to not say that but also broad enough for a generic background check company to probably check off a box that this "experience* had a validated reference.
I don't want to make judgements on the legalities because I'm not a lawyer. Something doesn't have to be a registered company to exist as an entity and what OSLabs was doing before this is ambiguous. Some things that I would ask a lawyer about are if Philip Troutman is signing letters as a board member when he is not and doing so knowingly and to perpetuate a fraud, could that be a problem for him as an individual. If he is a board member who just isn't listed in their public paperwork it could be a conflict of interest if he is using the charity to help Codesmith, which from the IRS website (again, not legal advice) might be a tax issue for the charity (i.e. it's not a real charity and might lose its status).