If I were innocent, I'd still be reeling from the loss of my love, my life partner, parent of my children, best friend, confidant, business partner. He was criticized for trying to keep the business going by trying to find another doctor. Lots of people cope with a loss by putting one foot in front of the other and plodding along trying to keep things as "normal" as possible especially when there are small children. It's sometimes easier than the constant reminder of the loss of a spouse every single minute of every day. Focusing on the business would help some. Imagine the added devastation of the family losing their home after losing their wife and mother. The practice was the source of income, the income paid the bills. He could be trying to take care of business, but be completely unable to mentally or emotionally. Sometimes it feels as though it's one thing after another falling on your head every time you think you're making progress. He may be dragging his feet getting the records out because that's just one more setback or it feels like it's admitting failure that he couldn't keep the business going. He knows more than anybody that TS can't be replaced, but the practice was already in place and if he got even a temporary doctor in, it could continue to produce an income of some sort until he either found a permanent doctor or sold the practice and got a job somewhere else.
Fake accounts are not meant to benefit the practice at all. It's a method of "skimming" money so that it's like it never existed and it goes to you personally. The point of ghost accounts is that they don't exist on the books, but in the ethernet so to speak. They are created solely to collect money from Medicare for example. Like bookkeepers or business owners keeping a duplicate set of books; cooking the books. Obtaining money that doesn't have a paper trail if done correctly. Or people collecting welfare under multiple fake names. The money is real, the accounts or people or patients are not. It doesn't even have to be fake people or ghost accounts, it could also be done by piggybacking off of real people's records, but collecting money from the source, but never intended for the real patient/person. It can also be done by creating ghost vendors. So many sneaky ways to siphon money.
CWW could have done this through the practice without anyone in the office ever knowing unless he made a mistake or someone on the paying end got suspicious and contacted TS directly. It happens sometimes that the first clue an owner might have is a contact from the IRS requesting an audit.
