If details of that deal leak, it's a big embarrassment for the company.
In the USA it is also illegal. There are substantial FTC fines to worry about. If it affects the stock price it could be classified as securities fraud (Matt Levine will happily tell you that "everything is securities fraud").
Intermediaries.
Also IMO the risk of someone whom is not already rich turning down that kinda money is so close to zero that it is effectively zero. No risk.
If everything is securities fraud then by that logic it would not be considered in making sketchy deals. Also as you double state, it only matters if the company is public anyway. Hmmm is openai public? Are any of the AI players besides MS,Oracle,Google? Short answer. No.
I'm not sure why with all the public unpunished criminal behavior we see nowadays you have such trouble believing that there really are lots of paid shills for such a hyped product.
HN seems to have a very long tolerance of suspected/potential white collar crimes. So I don't expect many allies on here. Seems the mindset is the ends justifies the means prevails.