...It all just seems fishy to me. I haven’t contacted him yet, but figuring they will want money to get a TVN. Is this normal or does it appear to be a scam?
I think that all this will not end with the provision of TVN and you will be required to deposit either an additional amount of money or provide a seed phrase from your wallet. You have to accept that you have been deceived and if you continue to communicate with them, you will lose even more of your money.
He should stop communicating with them and just accept that he lost the money already. Since if he keep listening to those scammers and try to follow their conditions then maybe they scam him again. So OP should listen to the advice given by people since there's no such thing can give him good profits especially if he deal with this people online also in a platform where scammers are staying. Much better if he make this a learning experience and share his experience to other people so he can save some heads to stay away on those scams. For sure this will not be the end as these scammers will find ways to scam again another people since this is how they earn their money.