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An individual admitted to the United States for the purpose of studying toward a degree, diploma, or certificate at a US institution of learning is only permitted to engage in “productive labor” in accordance with the very limited rules that apply to student employment. A person admitted as the spouse of student is not permitted to engage in productive labor at all.

You may not, while in the US in F-1 status, perform productive labor for anyone except as authorized by that school’s designated school official (DSO) in accordance with the rules for student employment under the SEVP. Your spouse may not work for anyone.

It does not matter who you do the work for; what matters is whether you are physically in the United States at the time you do the work. If you are in the US, you must have work authorization to perform productive labor, and neither F-1 nor F-2 status includes the sort of unrestricted work authorization you or your spouse would require to perform productive labor on behalf of your, or his, overseas clients. Your spouse would be in violation of F-2 status if he were to continue to provide services to his overseas clients while physically present in the US.

The only way he could continue to service his clients is to physically travel out of the United States, to some other country where he has work authorization, whenever he needed to do something for one of them, then reenter the US when he’s done.