Proups
I agree with you somewhat; I dont think there was intentional fraud at OPL. However, there were plenty of highly compensated people who had the job of looking out for the best interests of the company and the shareholders. That is what they were being paid very well to do. Those at the top knew very well what COULD have happened as well as what WAS happening.
Most of us received this stock, as part of our compensation package with the hopes that it would grow and be prosperous, for a while all was right with the world. Then the IRS problem. That was the beginning of the end. At that point if we (the stockholders) would have had the opportunity to sell more than 10% of our holdings I would only guess that most of us would have sold, at least we would have gotten more from our investment at that point. I think that the BOD at OPL should have given us that opportunity at that time. It is a privately held company and I am not sure if there would have been any legal ramifications (the SEC included) but even if there would have been Im sure we could have worked around them.
I do not feel I was given this stock for free I feel I worked for it. I feel it was an investment and like any other investment I expected a decent return, if that did not happen I would sell that investment and move on. Unfortunately we were not given that opportunity.
There are those that would say that the BOD and all others in power at OPL stand to lose just like the rest of us. While that may be true on a share-by-share basis, we are not compensated as well as those people, nor do we have the lucrative contracts, or the generous severance packages.
I would be interested to hear if there are any others that share this opinion or have other thoughts on this subject.
Michael