That's what it seemed like to me as well. Based on their research paper, they did not mention the individuals they interacted with at all.
They also lied in the paper about their methodology - claiming that once their code was accepted, they told the maintainers it should not be included. In reality, several of their bad commits made it into the stable branch.
They also lied in the paper about their methodology - claiming that once their code was accepted, they told the maintainers it should not be included. In reality, several of their bad commits made it into the stable branch.