That CEO needs to talk to his transfer agent. Even if what he said was true, the Transfer Agent's records would prove it without any doubt as the number of LONG shares on the agent's books would be substantially higher than the Company had issued.
But, of course, he is talking complete BS. No one is "hiding" FTD's by converting them to long shares, nor are they just leaving them as FTD's. In both cases, they would show up on the Transfer Agent's books.
If someone wants to investigate stock manipulation, they should take a look at the company's issuing this fraudulent BS and see who is profiting off of their announcements.