Hmmm, what kinds of things might a CEO be up to (and capable of keeping secret from the board) which would cause a business to lose its non-profit status in California?
It sounds like Sam wanted to turn OpenAI into Apple with an app store and revenue sharing and hardware designed by Jony Ive—except in about one year instead of the ~30 it took Steve Jobs. This alone could land the company in hot water with the California Attorney General given the non-profit charter. If a single dollar was invested in making any of that a reality, that would count as a misuse of non-profit funds and lead to serious problems when it came time to file Form RRF-1, scheduled to be filed yesterday, the day he was fired. Everything else is sort of besides the point.