I was misremembering it. Now that I've checked, it's clear that the claim was that the money was for paying "the team" [1], which consisted of André Arko and David Radcliffe [2]
Altogether, it demonstrates how Andre misled his audience on who was getting the money. IMO, I see a distinct pattern of him crossing boundaries and then covering it up using his social skills & friend group.
[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20150919025358/https://rubytoget...
[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20150919025603/https://rubytoget...