Depends. I was reading the post to say that he had a non-flying job with a FBO (let's say as a bookkeeper) and as a bonus, was given free flight time to use personally, not for company business.

But I agree with you completely - in the case of any real scenario about whether something you are doing or planning to do is legal, it's best to get competent professional advice. I've looked at a couple of NTSB decisions and still haven't found one that said "some guy on the Internet told me it was ok" was a viable defense.