Sure. I may not have all the answers...but I have
Post# of 43064
First, if the SEC targets microcap companies for fraud, the solution would be simply for those microcap companies to recognize that they might get caught if they commit fraud and decide not to commit fraud. All PTOI's Mr. Bordynuik would have had to do is think to himself, "I wonder if it's better to book the media credits at ten times the value of the stock traded for them to make the entire company look like it has a positive book value and pay for a felon accountant to sign off on the artificial valuation...or if it would be better to properly account for the media credits instead."
If a company doesn't actually commit fraud then it would be foolish for the SEC to charge that company with fraud because the court would rule in favor of the company. Simple right??
Second, even if a company does commit fraud, that doesn't stop operations. The company is free to keep moving forward for the benefit of shareholders. It would be hard to argue that as PTOI burned through $70M of investors' money...that the $150k fine charged to Mr. Bordynuik for his fraud was what sunk the company.
Third, PTOI's value, and the value of any investment, is worth exactly the value of the future cash flows returned to the investor. That's an important point that all investors should know and understand but many just don't. That value is not affected by the stock price unless the company decides to take steps to tie their value to the stock. That also means if some evil entity has manipulated the share price down to a tiny fraction of the value of its future cash flows, you should jump up and down rejoicing and gobble up shares...because you can then scoop up those ultra-cheap shares at a tiny fraction of their true value and just wait for the company to pay those generous dividends.