That article published 10 years ago was encouraging at the time. Those of us who were aware of naked shorting and trying to put a stop to it had hopes that finally the SEC was going to put an end to this criminal activity but it proved be be a temporary stand against naked shorting and it wasn't long before it was being done on a grander scale. Looking back that temporary stand was taken to protect the banking industry from eating its own after Lehman Brothers was attacked and naked shorted with abandon for which no attacker was prosecuted even though the regulators knew who the culprit was.
So yes, if you search you can find isolated instances where the SEC claimed it was going to put a stop to abusive naked shorting and in a few cases have actually gone after perpetrators normally accepting a token fine and a promise not to do it again as punishment. In the meantime investors continue to have their pockets picked and small companies continue to be driven to bankruptcy while regulators wink and look the other way. If you can't see that IPIX has been hurt badly by those selling shares that do not exist into the market you are in denial. Those air shares have driven down the share price causing the outstanding (even though Leo has worked hard to limit this) to be larger than it would have been had Aspire been able to sell the shares he did for more per share.
It is my opinion that none of the non retail short sellers have covered a single share and this includes the group that employed Mako.
They never ever cover until forced to do so. They have placed their bets and continue to do so. Investors who continue to add shares to their holdings are betting on the science and praying a deal is completed quickly..
Go IPIX!!!