I know it's easy to say from the outside, but a project is under no obligation to accept a sketchy sponsor. If someone offered money to post a link to something obviously illegal, it would be illegal to accept that deal. If they offer money to post a link to something dubiously legal, it is likewise dubious to accept that deal.
That they're starving open source developers doesn't remove the obligation to vet their sponsors before posting their links.
Not sure what you're supposed to do as the project maintainer, might also be a bit strange to selectively only display some sponsors that you think are "trustworthy"?