All I can say is many have tried to obtain permits, and none other than Malesiana Tropicals that I am aware of have ever been permitted. It has been suggested to the Management Authority that it would be in the conservation interests of the species to allow a controlled seed collection for tissue culture purposes to be shared amongst several commercial organisations, with some sort of profit share, but it has been rejected. Nevertheless, it is a protected species and collected other than with a permit is illegal. Even to set foot on the Marai Parai without a permit is illegal.
As Malesiana only has its own specimens of edwardsiana in its nursery, and has not commercialised or tissue cultured it that I'm aware of, all other source of edwardsiana must have been collected without a permit. Which is illegal. I'm not seeking to justify or criticise the policy or the law, I'm simply pointing out that, based on my information from the management of the National Park, the only party to have ever been granted a permit is Malesiana. So if you buy edwardsiana from anyone other than Malesiana the material would have to be illegally obtained. Which is why neither Borneo Exotics or Wistuba have this species. Rob Cantley would love to propagate edwardsiana, but will not be involved in illegal collections, and I'm sure Andreas is the same.
Joe, as for your question, my own view is that all material, no matter how distant from the original illegal act, is tainted. It is open to debate. If nobody bought poached material, the incentive to poach would be greatly reduced.