JJ's mistake? That's a big assumption. I think it was done very carefully and deliberately. After all millions of shares were given out and converted cheaply by insiders and likely dumped due to that "fiasco".
The only "mistakes" I see are folks believing after decades of setting up false hopes, this was the real deal. And it certainly wasn't JJ's.
However, JJ's mistake wasn't so much the selection of Amarant, it was that he relented on his edict that he would not pick a partner without an upfront financial commitment.
Presumably there was no potential partner willing to make an upfront financial commitment.