Speaking as a former corporate lawyer...he's not wrong.
Executives have been leaking internal data to trading firms for decades. The trick is for the analyst to come up with some plausible explanation for why they reached the conclusion to buy (or sell), which is generally easy to do.
Sure, but you're not describing the way hypotheses are developed at DE Shaw, PDT, etc. I'm not debating that happens at places which focus (even if only ostensibly) on fundamental analysis.
Executives have been leaking internal data to trading firms for decades. The trick is for the analyst to come up with some plausible explanation for why they reached the conclusion to buy (or sell), which is generally easy to do.