wow I can't believe this is getting down-voted?!
Of course we should consider this possibility. When STEEM was at $5 that meant that each new account was allocated $75 worth of SP. So 100 accounts being approved for a bot operator, that is a worth of $750 SP.
With numbers like that of course there is going to be a motive for collision/corruption. That could even happen at the lowest levels for example a person getting paid minimum wage to approve accounts.