Bad try on the part of HEX !! If they had spent half of this amount well on the project and good publicity, they would have achieved much better results !!!
What do you mean? Good publicity? their reputation has been damaged already and regardless how much btc then spend to sort of damage control, it won't help them.
These attempts in themselves reveal that behind this hidden and illegal things, what makes you pay 10 Bitcoin to someone if you do not do illegal things? Even if they are not a scam, this attempt will be a black point for them and it will have the opposite effect.
Because that's what criminals do right? This is call corruption, just like in any form of governments, any transactions involves some bribing to sort things up. And in this case, they want to be as legit as AA that's why they try to bribe him 10
BTC but was rejected.