Comment by jonhohle
2 years ago
While maybe not illegal (yet), there is a lot of deception of retail investors throughout the process:
* astroturf campaign against the company
* fake boost in profits from massive asset liquidation
Once the stock is run up, equity cashed out leaving morons who only had access to financials and not “the plan” holding the bag. It smells like a combination of fraud and insider trading, but perhaps the SEC can name it something more appropriate.
> perhaps the SEC can name it something more appropriate
They can name it "what half of our employees did before working here".
I'm just following the logic in the original comment. To wit:
All of that is (barely, probably) not illegal, and because it is not illegal, it therefore is normal, perfectly reasonable, and not in any way wrong. The law wasn't broken, therefore nothing untoward happened.
If they managed to touch their toe over the line of illegal, then it was fraud and bad and they're criminals who should be prosecuted. But since what they did might be barely not quite fraud, it's perfectly normal and acceptable, right?
/s