Why would that be suspicious? Shock value and immediacy are well-known and often-used marketing ploys that would have a perfect application there while the loss is fresh in people's mind and the controversy would keep people buzzing about "the film that X was killed for" even if it was, in fact, completely baseless. Again, I'm noted for my lack of faith in humanity, so I might be overly cynical...
Heck, Uwe Boll tried to promote a movie via parody of 9/11, so I feel safe in saying there's no low a marketing agency won't stoop to if they think it will grab people's attention. I can even see completely innocent groups attempting tie-ins that even go so far as to try and cast doubt on their own innocence for the sake of buzz. Remember, this is a story about a company saying a movie series that likely had over a billion dollars in sales (tickets, DVDs, licensed products) made no money and is saying it with a straight face; conventional logic has no place here.