As far as I know, he could have just bought the land from the local governmental body, but he decided to pay for investigation of the family trees just to find

As far as I know, he could have just bought the land from the local governmental body, but he decided to pay for investigation of the family trees just to find the current land-owners and make sure they get their money. Don't see how that is bad. Also, they aren't paying him anything in any kind of lawsuit. There was another article recently posted that explained the whole process better.