Just following a thread here, and I found this one:
http://www.businessinsider.com/googles-4-million-revenge-on-a-merchant-2010-8
looking at the links he has got from it, I wish I had made it up.
That's low hanging fruit for the spam team I'd guess. Great linkbait though!
I have a friend who works for that company. She says that guy can be kind of a tool but he does know his business stuff. At Blogworld last month they set three Guiness world records for the largest cup of coffee, the largest cup of iced coffee, and the largest coffee mug. I would guess they spent $20,000 or so on that but the publicity and links they can generate from something like that will more than pay off in the long run.
Rather than just paying for links he is now using good old fashioned publicity to get the job done.
He last commenter "government intervention". What a bell end.