~snip~
The only situation that could lead to that suspicions is, if there are a trade of merits occurred between the accounts involved. We can trace back the merit to its original high ranking account but it will be unlikely to happen as they became smart and they know that it could be trace this way.
People should lose the merit if the post is deleted for whatever reason. Allowing it is just ripe for abuse as people can just merit shitposts or posts that are in fact copy and pasted then delete to hide the evidence.
This idea is the best solution that will solve these cases.