Precisely why I'm fascinated as well. I've worked in public accounting and for a couple publicly traded companies as well. None of this makes sense. They couldn't have botched three audits this badly (2006, 2007, 2008). The auditors, according to other DD on this board, had business relationships with other companies where some of the directors or officers were also directors and officers. Maybe there was a connection to the IR firm PR gal as well, can't remember all the sordid details. Find it hard to believe though, that any CPA firm in their right mind would collude with a publicly traded company after what happened with Anderson and Enron. Just too risky. Insurance doesn't usually cover law-breaking either, so no coverage if a firm is found to have engaged in fraud with their client. I don't think that's the case here, there's a lot more to this story.
The forensic audit must be well enough along for them to have released those preliminary results. I'm guessing the next step will be providing evidence to the SEC for purposes of prosecuting someone. At a minimum, even if this whole fiasco turned out to be one gigantic misunderstanding, there appears to have been serious deficiencies in required 8 K filings. Not to mention the catastrophic damage inflicted on the shareholders. Unbelievable. You're right, might make a great case study, perhaps a best-selling novel.