Anyway, I think some of the suggestions- even my own remarks- about avoiding ROM might be more use of OOC/Meta-verse knowledge rather than what some minor level grunt knows. Hanse Davion might know, Katrina Steiner might know, Jaime Wolf probably knows, Grayson Carlyle has experienced it, and I would expect Fake Tom absolutely knows . . . but how widespread is the knowledge of ComStar's sabotage?
It's not. ComStar were very good at covering their tracks and making sure nothing they did ever could be traced back to them. Until Focht opened their archives in the 3050s, nobody even knew about Holy Shroud and few even suspected that ComStar was meddling in their affairs, let alone to what degree.
The average person (And yes, that includes Mercs) has no reason at all to distrust ComStar at htis point. Sure, they're a little eccentric, but then, who isn't? They do a very good job of presenting themselves as a neutral body that allows interstellar communication, regulates finances, provides shipping and all that sort of thing. And let's not forget, Comstar does a lot of work with aiding in reconstruction and "helping" ordinary people.
So in short, the average person is going to trust Comstar unless they're pants-crappingly paranoid.