I do not have the answer to that one. I would expect nobody involved with this had any history with EESO back in the day. It would draw too much attention I'd think, especially if they were complacent in everything that occurred back then.
If anything I believe it was genius to pick this shell. I mean think about, it has a history of going from 000X to penny land. I've seen multiple times on here or StockTwits how people mentioned it has a history of taking off. That adds to the lore and FOMO factor people would have about it taking off again.