What, just because I owned a renderfarm I'm the official RenderFarm Pimp now?
Given the fact that these aren't just server boxes, they're render boxes, probably puts a nail in the idea of using them to fold. You don't go out and buy 588 machines unless you need 588 machines. That probably means that these things are going to have very little downtime at all, to maximize the return on investment. When renderboxes are rendering the idle drops almost entirely to zero. (that's the beauty of the render engines, they really maximize the cycles)
And besides that there are a couple of other problems:
1. He can't claim a tax deduct on a US university contribution while in NZ
2. Nobody can claim a tax deduction on Folding, no matter where you are. (since you can't prove what part of your electric bill went to it)
3. If he were going to do folding, say as aburn-in test for his network, he would start his own team for the publicity of it.
Sorry to rain on the parade