Minority stock owners can easily be wiped out by bastard moves of insiders. The management can issue 8 zillion new shares of stock.
It's probably illegal, but once things are going down the tubes at a small company the stakes are usually too small for it to be worth it to the minority shareholders to bother with lawyers.
It's probably illegal, but once things are going down the tubes at a small company the stakes are usually too small for it to be worth it to the minority shareholders to bother with lawyers.