AITA for paying a professional to do the work, I paid them to do?

I had my head spun around by a question I asked in a different sub and I'm now questioning my actions.<br><br>The company I work for hired a contractor to do some IT projects. Before his first day, my boss and I had sat down and talked about his work load and how he would be doing these projects. <br><br>We had a meeting with the contractor and went over everything (equipment, expectations, etc). He would not be working weekends, he would only work in the office and would have a set schedule. We then asked if he had questions. His first question was about the budget for the projects.<br><br>We explained that the budget was not his concern, and we would pay his services and buying of equipment out of pocket. He had no need to know our budget. His next question was if he was allowed to subcontract out his work. I said no.<br><br>He asked why and we explained it was because we were paying for HIS services and work. Not someone else's. <br><br>I made sure to stress that if I wanted to pay someone else to do the work, I would have hired them instead of him. I go on to say, if I wanted to pay someone else to to the work, I would have hired them instead of him. <br><br>That subcontracting would be him laundering money and would be a gross misuse of company funds.<br><br>He had no other questions, and we thought that was it.<br><br>Fast forward a few weeks, and I get a call from the owner of a subcontracting service in our area. He is stating that he did weeks worth of work for our company and can he get paid. I tell him that he did not do the work, and that our contractor did. He argues that no, he did and that he has proof (and proceeds to show me). <br><br>I thank him and tell him if he is doing the work, I am going to stop payment on the contractors payments until I get to the bottom of this. He tells me no, to please keep pay him as we have a "business" arrangement. <br><br>I told him, if I am paying your services, than I am your boss and I can terminate your services and you wont get anymore money. He got very quiet and said he would talk with the contractor.<br><br>Now we are where I am, questioning myself. Did I screw up? Should I have let this guy just getPaid?<br><br>UPDATE: I did go digging and found out the contractor does not have a business license and has had 14k in payment from my company. I have figured out 2k of that 14k went to the sub contractor. <br><br>I did call the contractor and asked where the rest of the money went. His answer was "I do not know". Which to me, is admission of guilt.<br><br>I will be talking to my boss in the morning and going from there.