We don't know, you would have to ask Putt. I would imagine that any partner of Voat would want to remain anonymous though, malicious or not.

If it's not malicious, there should be no problem with users questioning and being concerned. What Putt just did by demodding that guy is he sent a clear message to all moderators of all default subverses that if they pipe up and question this, they'll have all of their hard work moderating those subverses undone in an instant. I think people are overlooking that aspect. Generally speaking moderators of well known subverses are themselves more well known than the average user. Silencing them, if this partner is a malicious actor, would be one of their first goals.