Does this surprise you? With all the disclosed partnering, auction bidding scandals, insider pumping, broker scandals, reporting undisclosed 7 figure sales for names then parked, etc. plenty of phony crap. It isn’t just this industry, its a ethical problem possibility everywhere where a third party gets involved with a sale. There are those brokers in all industries who double dip. This is nothing new, seen this for years in other industries. It happens in Real estate also, where kickbacks and side agreements occur behind the scenes. Brokers can be impartial should they choose to be a Seller or Buyers exclusive broker, in writing.
The way to help prevent this is to have more control, agree to the % commission up front with your broker contract, then once you accept the offer, all agree to send the transaction to an escrow company with all (3) parties names listed and monies to be transparent to who and how much to distribute funds. Seller also should be exclusively loyal to said Broker, and never attempt to circumvent paying the broker and agree not ever to contact buyer should deal fall through in future for x amount of time nor have any direct communication under any circumstances. If the broker refuses this, find another broker.