Why, ..., do they (does he) keep doling the Preferred A shares out as if they are valuable?Except for the voting power, they don't seem to be. Is it ONLY done for the voting power? At one point years ago, I did the math and figured out that Diwan controlled the vote, and then the story started taking form and making sense to me. It took me a lot longer to understand the full depths of fraud (at least wrongful, if not criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain). Initially I thought that Diwan would lose control of the vote as more shares were issued.
From then on, every time I noticed that more common shares got issued, Diwan found another reason why he deserved to issue himself another load of Series A Shares.
One time, frustrated after the company announced authorization of a slew of new Series A shares, I asked Seymour why they were authorizing a bunch of new Series A shares. If memory serves me correctly, he told me something to the effect of, "The lawyer(s) told us to do it." (I didn't ask why, because I thought I knew why. Their lawyer is complicit.)
I believe the reason Series A shares are Diwan's preferred mode of control is because it is indirect theft and to some degree looks benign. The real prize is that Diwan can steer the company and its cash in his preferred direction, which is much more important than conversion upon change of control. That's not to minimize the impact if he ever were to sell the NNVC portion of the enterprise, I estimated one time it would be 20% of the common share ownership, although a wholesale equity raise might alter that.
These factors led me to believe that Diwan would be carefully counting votes, and would never voluntarily release his grip on the company and his ability to direct and apply its cash towards TheraCour and his personal interests.
To me, common share ownership is merely the right to enrich Diwan and TheraCour. But Diwan controls the company in numerous ways besides just the vote.
But then, even evil geniuses sometimes screw up...
Remember when Diwan bought back NNVC shares less than six months after he had sold a bunch at a substantially higher price...and then (due to SEC rules) had to give his gains on that round-trip transaction back to the company? I have to admit I got a bit of satisfaction out of that event.
Long story short...perhaps I'm wrong and Diwan no longer has control of the vote. But it would still surprise me if he hasn't figured out a way to maintain control. |
