This has not been addressed very much, so let me go there.

The person whose credibility took the hardest hit if this reveal is true...is Alan Mendelson.

Maybe that's why he self-banned. He knew this was coming. Pretty embarrassing. I mean, think about it. Mr. Mendelson used to give people grief for double-dipping free rooms on simultaneous offers. This is way, way beyond anything in his comfort zone. His publicizing what turned out to be obviously completely wrong numbers and the provenance of "Singer's" income does serious, permanent damage to Mendelson's reputation. He stood by "Singer" for years as a wingman. If you presented this story to Mr. Mendelson without a name attached, I'm sure Mr. Mendelson would have been publicly appalled.