Do you have evidence to support the implication (for Lee to be lying, as you claim) that Freenode is owned by Private Internet Access?
https://web.archive.org/web/20210520103526/https://freenode....
"The rumors of a 'hostile takeover' are simply untrue - I've been the guardian and owner of freenode since 2017, when Christel, the former owner approached me and asked if I was interested in purchasing it, as we had in previous years discussed this."
It doesn’t appear he was lying, because by all accounts he owned it personally.