Headscratchers / Star Trek: Picard S2E06 "Two of One"

• How Soong is able to make a donation that is apparently utterly significant if he needs himself funding for his researches (as any normal scientist)?
  • Not only that, but why is he treated with respect at the gala, being on the board of directors and all, when the previous episode — along with the articles Kore finds in her Google search — shows him as a disgraced scientist, having had his funding and his license revoked?