An employer owns his own private aircraft, for which he employs a suitably experienced, two pilot CPL/IR qualified crew to fly for him. Because he does not hold an AOC he is prohibited by law to take along other passengers who contribute financially to the flight. Rightly so, because his organisation is not as tightly regulated or overseen as an AOC operation.
Exactly this situation came to pass when a former Canadian Prime Minister accepted a flight on a [non AOC] corporate aircraft. This was later found to be a "gift", which the Prime Minister was not supposed to accept. So he promptly admitted the error on his part, and wrote a cheque for the cost of the flight. Then, there were instantly problems for the private operator of the aircraft, who had no authority to accept payment for the private flight.