I've seen this line of reasoning quite frequently in the last few hours and am a tad suspicious.

Let's frame it this way: Can the police pay criminals to commit crime in order to arrest other people?

Here is a lovely example of my own wealthy first world country scamming one of the poorest nations on earth out of their oil reserves for a handsome profit. The man (Nick Warner) behind it all lives in luxury guarded by guns and the bureaucratic evil protecting him and his ilk. The minister at the time (Alexander Downer) afterwards went on to work for Woodside Petroleum, one of the biggest oil companies in the world who coincidentally was the main beneficiary of the shady deal.

May history judge them all appropriately.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia–East_Timor_spying_sc...