WSTI is NOT a Pump and Dump! And never has been - so, not to worry.
It is unfortunate that claims are being made as such but that is just wild, baseless and unsubstantiated opinion. WSTI is simply a startup (really an early developing company) that got caught in a gigantic downspout of economic collapse in the Solar Industry. If one looks at the economics over the past couple of years it is clear. In ~April, May of 2015 every major (i.e many billion dollar) solar company entered a really bad period. All of the biggies like Canadian Solar, First Solar, Solar Edge, Solar City, Sun Power and the Chinese companies all suffered big losses starting then. Over that period they have lost ~80%, 90% and more of their share value. The largest renewable energy company in the WORLD, Sun Edison, (both solar and wind) has gone bankrupt and they were a $10Billion+ company! If you look at the charts, you can see they all went downhill together. Many of the bigger companies have gone out of business or have taken on new debt to stay alive. The outlook for the entire Solar Industry in rather grim until ~2018 from all the projections that I have seen.
Now if you take a dinky startup with a great product trying to compete in all that mess, life gets difficult. All of the big companies sell Convertible Debentures for their interim financing but they have the means to sell other things to cover the Notes if they come due. WSTI is far too small to do so. When Bates took the only financing that he could get, the Solar Industry looked like it would thrive ... IT DID NOT! I fault Bates greatly for this gigantic faux pas although I am not sure there was ever going to be a remedy for a small struggling company in a gigantic suction machine of economic collapse for its industry sector.
Sun Edison has spent more than 6 months in court and trying to restructure the company and they still have some money to do so. WSTI seems to be trying to restructure but without the bankroll.
Many companies that start up fail and NOT because they are Pump and Dumps. If one looks, WSTI has not made any PUMPS for dumps during this whole downturn which is what the real Pump and Dumps do to stay alive and often! A debt becomes toxic when a note comes due and the company cannot cover because of the economic times. That is the real danger of Convertible Debentures. Trouble is, that is the only financing du jour for these companies. If the company makes it, the note is NOT toxic, otherwise ...
