If I'm reading this right, they're saying the nonprofit paid a terraforming outfit a fee of US$5000 (as apposed to L$5000), though the terraforming outfit was asking US$10,000. Either one of those strikes me as exorbitant. It also sounds very much like the issue was handled as a work-for-hire, until after the fact, when the actual individual who did the (exorbitantly priced) terraforming itself.... got greedy, and looked for a loophole where he could demand the entire US$10,000 for himself.
So, I'd say the real moral of this story is... don't do business with outfits wanting to charge exorbitant prices for low-complexity things like basic landmass shapes. They might get more greedy later.