That is not true. The people who buy now are not getting the dividend from the company directly, but through an IOU of sorts from the seller. It is all handled by the brokerage at that point but if you sell your stock before the payment date you will also be giving away the dividend that you are technically issued and entitled to.
I just spoke to Fidelity. He said the same thing. I challenged him. He said he would check it out with The dividend people. He called me back and Said we will have our Regen shares on Tuesday and current sales do not carry Regen shares. So we finally agree on something DK.