Re: Shoddy reporting
You missed "tricked" from your quote. There is no evidence that the company's management intended to collapse the company. If they had then "tricked" might well apply. As far as can be seen the trusts were participating in a development that could be of use to them in their everyday operations. It's entirely possible that they might have participated in that without the offer of shares.
The complicating factor here seems to have been that the shares were listed and hence received a value that had to be entered into the accounts. If that were not the case then they could have been entered with a nominal value reflecting the cost of the effort needed to prepare the data for sharing. That is the actual cash loss which has been incurred here.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
