The "conference" was pretty obviously not part of genuine academia, i.e., not a real university's event but a for-profit (and for-tax-writeoff) promotion. Not unlike the brand-X "Who's Who" publications that will list you if you buy an overpriced copy or two or ten.

Condemning the academic world on the basis of this story is not more or less valid than condemning the business world. Actually, these bogus seminars are business ventures, while they're not genuine academic events.