[simonh]

The ex Apple employees, including one posting here, say the conflict of interest policy does not prevent helping friends or family with tech problems for free.

It seems plausible this guy did so for money. Note that the post says the work was done in spare time but doesn’t say it was done for free. That would be a conflict of interest because it’s engaging in commercial activities also engaged with by Apple.

[jrnichols]

It's also possible that he took home some internal tools to use as well, which I can imagine would land him in hot water.