I am thinking more and more that Rodney Joffe is the red herring the media is trying to prop up to deflect from the real Tech Executive-1 who might be very high profile (Eric Schmidt certainly fitting the description).

Based on what you are saying, and assuming he did not turn, its possible Rodney was helping the White Hats in the FBI - perhaps that security loop hole that he exposed was actually being used by the Black Hats and they got pissed off when he exposed this.

Anyway, this first hand account is highly informative and worth digging more.