Former employer doing shady stuff

[Quagmire 2148]

So my wife got laid off from a job some months ago . She has a boss that wasn’t great , dismissive, not professional
And didn’t treat her right . The ceo of the company sent an email out about a program to improve the workplace and a way to report things such as these . So my wife filled out the form about this boss .
 
Not a few weeks after doing so she was let go due to the generic reason of not being a fit . Obviously it was bs but they offered a severance and probably not worth fighting financially.
 
Anyways she’s been looking for a job and has reached out to former colleagues whom she got along with and appreciated her work . She had one person that was being friendly and helping her for a bit but this person told her that the company told her to not talk or be friends with her anymore . Which seems completely illegal to me . She reached out to another colleague to ask to write her a recommendation on linked in , which she did . A few days later she noticed the recommendation was gone , so she asked the person what happened and yet again the company told the employee to remove it.
 
This all seems like complete bs to me but not sure what course to take . She’s afraid if she reports it they will take action against the employees that were trying to help her .