I really have to find the previous instance that this happened, situation was similar except it didn't really involve many people. The company crossed shares in the market between record date and ex-date, hundreds of thousands of shares
It was in December of 1999 I believe, stock started with an S
They had effectively crossed over stock that didn't exist, all I remember about the outcome was that the reverse merger partner ran and hid and the stock remained a screwed up shell for a while.