There appears to be an update on this story - from the Venturebeat article http://venturebeat.com/2008/09/01/when-selling-your-company-...
The company says he used a personal email ID to conduct company work. All the email was on the company computer, and they looked at that account to get the business related stuff. Seems to me like this is a case of an ex employee that is pissed off and seeking personal revenge. Anything on that commputer belongs to the company. Cant comment on the contract stuff, but given the inflamitory way he talked about the email - who knows what the truth is about the contract. Sour grapes - I think his ranting is doing him more harm than good. who will want to do business with him now he shows how he deals with issues in public and not through reasonable normal business channels