I'd be honest, I'm not up to date with the recent developments in USI.
But I do have to say this - The RP is legit.
They contacted someone(character) inRP, and have gathered the info they wanted. Richard(Char) and The Broker HAVE RP stories long before this was thought of, I'm sure. So the connection between them is also explained, and it would make sense why Richard(Char) would turn to The Broker for help in these kind of things.
And like Tesh said before, it could all have been done through Skype or through easy Metagaming, but it was done via RP. I see nothing wrong.
