I wasn't sure whether this is a spoof or not. Is he serious when he writes - "I did this because I despised people I think are unjustly wealthy and wanted to embarass them. "
That was his admitted rationale - that he was seeking to embarrass people he despised because they were "unjustly wealthy?"
Another question would be is: does harvesting emails embarrass the, in his words, the "unjustly wealthy"? Is it the CEO or one of the board members that is responsible for web server configurations?
Obviously pure speculation (mixed with cynicism) recalling this story of the email harvesting I have no problems imagining a conversation like this occurred:
PR Flack: "Sir, we had a little PR snafu today and millions of email addresses of paying customers were exposed."
CEO: "So what?"
PR Flack: "Well it looks bad sir."
CEO: "Fine, shitcan some 50K a year nerd in one of data centers and then issue a press release indicating how seriously we take customer privacy".
That was his admitted rationale - that he was seeking to embarrass people he despised because they were "unjustly wealthy?"