> What kind of 'trade secret information' could a vpn provider be blackmailed with though?

That's easy. A VPN provider has access to all kinds of juicy information, such as who their customers are and what they are up to online.

They may have been compromised already, they may sell user data. There are all kinds of things that could be going on that would definitely be stuff they could be blackmailed with.

Whether any of that is the case remains to be seen.