There is a contract where seemly Christel sold everything, even stuff that was not hers to start with, to PIA.
That contract was hidden until recently, and seemly some of the staffers had to pay lawyers with money of their own pocket to figure out what is going on.
What made people realize how bad it was, is when the "owner" started to demand passwords for control of the servers, including ones that are not directly controlled by freenode, saying he has legal right to demand that.
Sold by who? Christel alone? The brother-of-original-owner? What exactly was sold? The name? Server data?