Define "a few times", because it is very well possibly to acknowledge and even ignore details about a person if doing so provides sufficient financial motivation. In my opinion, this renders the number of interactions irrelevant and many reasonable people would expect action sooner.
Acquaintances, or business partners? After all, they are doing more than just acknowledging each other. Ergo, there are definitely some similarities in personalities and motivations; contrast this to what would define two "acquaintances". Given this, I would logically surmise that such similarities shared between these two individuals may very well include similar styles of presentation. It is not my fault that one such style of presentation includes presenting oneself as a character that is underage.
People can cope about the 3 thing, but this feels like "totally obvious joke, man" that someone such as Vito Gesualdi would make.
tl;dr: I don't buy it.