I would surmise that while it may have been somewhat random there were a couple that they made sure got it.....most can probably guess who. Also, no doubt they paid the 'cheaper' payouts and definitely avoided paying anyone with significant shares. As for why they stopped...that is pretty clear. When it was clear the 'target audience' didn't care they had no reason to continue paying anyone. It's not like this was a real 'dividend'. It was a purely an attempted pump to dump into. When it wasn't working they had no reason to continue. Really though, it was an interesting attempt. They probably spent well under $10,000 with hopes of creating say 50 million in volume to dump into. If it worked and they were able to dump 50 million shares at 2 cents each would have produced $1 million dollars for worthless paper on a $10,000 'investment'. Pretty good ROI if you can stomach ripping people off. If Aurus wasn't already the most obvious scam in pinky history already completely exposed as an empty shell scam, and hadn't gone about it in such a hilariously sloppy manner it may have worked too....
R.I.P. Aurus
--- 'There is no coward like the 'investor' scammed' --- Ibreken