It's naïve to think a bunch of crooked "management", along with the.....
help of an IRP, couldn't defraud gullible speculators looking to make money in the market.
And with sufficient help, it could be done not just once, not just twice, but three times, as here with the Emperioal Americas scam.
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."
Upton Sinclair
"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."
H. L. Mencken