As others have said, we will never know. However, this is a very small company and (in my experience) oddball employees usually act out in small ways before acting out in big ways. If you don't correct the small situations, you end up with a mess. And this is a mess.Hi Lee - not sure what the point of your post is.
I've based my comment on 30+ years in the corporate world - much of it dealing with C-level execs. In my personal experience no capable C-level exec would allow this to spiral the way it has into the train wreck it has become by mere accident (incompetence - maybe).
Hence IMO - having let it get to this point he's only sorry it went public. Or, he's a completely out of touch CEO who has no clue what his business - on a major issue and decision to go nuclear - is doing around him.
I stand by my opinion of the situation that could equally be right or wrong in my read of it.
It is hard to imagine, however, that a lawyer was involved. What competent lawyer would suggest this action? That would leave either the dopey guy who threatened the reviewer as a solo flyer or the CEO knew and didn't stop the bluff because he wasn't concerned (for me, hard to believe).
Seems they didn't pay the reviewer's legal fees but gave him a piece of gear instead. That doesn't look very good either.