I think it is due to account level access. They tried claiming they hadn't been associated with them for 3 years but then admit that the developer had access to their account as recent as Dec 2021. Let's say this developer did something really dirty like stole user data and then Google finds out this developer still has app store permissions through this other company account.

I think Google handles these situations terribly from a PR perspective, because the moment someone posts negative publicity would be the perfect time to Google PR to show their hand and say no they are misleading the public.

There is probably a good reason they don't do that though. I could see how a company isn't really responsible for what another developer did that they may have not known about, but I don't think we are getting the full story here.

An entire company shouldn't get wiped off the map because one contractor has been misbehaving on another gig.

I don't think the issue is that a bad contractor worked for the company but that they prob had admin permissions and were likely doing nefarious things with some APIs with those credentials.

Things like this don't ruin a company though. The company should immediately file an injunction and claim against both the developer and Google. They should have done that immediately. I think they have no clue or simply don't have the money to pay an attorney so there isn't much they can do. Heck an employee could steal all their money and unless they are willing to file a lawsuit there isn't much that anyone can do.