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Your friend had made a mistake. He should not have continued working without pay. There is nothing to be done here now. This CEO have an upper hand and your friend is not in a position to make any bargains. A take-away lesson - do not work without pay.

(just for a reference, what nationality is the CEO?

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It is further questionable whether this person could even legally work as a contractor. Depending on the level of control the company exercised over how your friend performed their duties (and "admin stuff" sounds pretty hands-on to me), the government may actually consider them an employee. In that case the company is withholding wages, which would get them in a much bigger amount of trouble.

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