Re:<"I am very interested in the answers to these questions as well:">
I would say it's the rule rather than the exception that scam stocks have credible names associated with them. They work to get those associations and to name drop.
Sometimes to get an association, a startup will offer some sort of a commodity to reputable company at a cheaper price--the reputable company doesn't care since if the startup doesn't deliver at that cheaper price then they're not out anything and the disreputable startup doesn't care since they have no intention of actually delivering anyway. The startup only needs the contract so they can announce the association to investors.
Again, Mr. Rivera was the king--at one point he got an advertisement from Oppenheimer for $50 million of debt financing and he immediately put out a press release as if it were reality.
If the alignment is with a small, less known company, often I've seen those are in cahoots--that 'birds of a feather' thing. For example JBII has associations with Domark. I don't know anything about Domark except they're small and associated with JBII so I would say the chances are much higher that Domark is disreputable.
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