I'm surprised some of the BitShares devs/BM weren't approached in some capacity.
Byrne was pretty clear in an LTB interview that he hated the centralized, corporate approach of certain projects. I suspect this fiasco was the primary reason for i3's sudden shift to the community lingo.
One of the reasons BM has internal pressure (internal as in his own head) to try to keep some things secret is because he has been open about how to accomplish many things and has had those ideas taken without the ones taking them even giving him (and indirectly BitShares) any credit.
BM and the team actually spent a good deal of time working with Patrick in the early stages which had the entire community thinking Patrick was going to work with bitshares. Instead it seems he let Dan give him free consultations and then ran off to use his vast resources to try to build Dan's vision with a competitor who has no real innovation compared to bitshares.
So don't be surprised...they were approached, and imho used pretty unethically.
If I'm incorrect, of course, anyone with more accurate info please feel free to correct me with more accurate details.